Byblis
by KarasuKimi
Summary: Some children were born out of love. The Sabaku Twins were born out of consequence. -AU Narutoverse- /Live!Yondaime — Konoha!Gaara/ -Non-Massacre-
1. Little Lion Man

**Author's Note:** I was bitten again, by this horrid plot bunny of doom. This is so AU it's not even funny, but yeah, I basically love this plotline to pieces and hopefully you will too. Oh and _**Memoirs of a Prodigy**_ will be returning soon, if you guys will have me back.

**Alternate Universe:** Alive!Minato & Kushina. Kagome and Gaara are twins living in Konoha. Non-Massacre Uchiha Clan.

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><p><em>Byblis<em>

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><p>Weep for yourself, my man,<br>You'll never be what is in your heart  
>Weep Little Lion Man,<br>You're not as brave as you were at the start  
>Rate yourself and rape yourself,<br>Take all the courage you have left  
>Wasted on fixing all the problems<br>That you made in your own head

—_Little Lion Man_

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><p>Namikaze Minato, the Yellow Flash, nemesis of bureaucracy, natural blond, fearless leader of Konohagakure no Sato and <em>all out good guy<em> suffered from an acute case of paedophobia.

In other words, he was utterly, inexplicably afraid of _babies._

Children in general but that was hardly the point. The point _was_ that Namikaze Minato regarded a baby the same way a soldier with post traumatic stress syndrome regarded a bloodied sword.

A slight over exaggeration _maybe_, as Minato always thought he reacted appropriately when faced with his fear.

He typically froze, smiled awkwardly and tried his best not to touch _it._ That is before he bolted in the other direction or disappeared completely.

It became a rather strained topic of discussion during those long council meetings, especially when he fled the scene of a dozen new mothers prostrating their _crying creatures of death_ for him to kiss.

_Oh, the woes of being a political figure,_ Minato thought morosely as he stamped his three hundred and sixteenth document of the hour.

"You're going to be a father within a matter of hours, kid," Jiraiya was pacing in front of a long pane of glass. City lights unfurled before them, and the night was calm and starless. "You better get over your issues before Kushina's bun in the oven is done cookin'."

Minato thumped his head on his chair, cast a forlorn look at a freshly printed stack of paperwork and then rolled his skull on the headrest. "I am fine."

"That's what you said yesterday when you jumped through the window to escape Mikoto's little boy."

Minato glared petulantly at his bandaged forearm. Kushina had plucked all the glass out, but not without her usual grumblings or occasional whack to the head. "He had a knife."

"A rattle, you mean." Jiraiya crossed his arms, a mane of shaggy white hair coursed down his spine and a veil of moonlight slipped across his face. "It's his brother you should be worried about."

"Itachi-kun is very nice," Minato said. The elder of Mikoto's boys was anything but childlike and Kushina was easing him into this whole fatherhood thing one very stoic, mature little six year old boy at a time. "Do you think Naruto will be that way?"

Last he checked, neither Fugaku nor Mikoto held that outstanding of an intellect. Surely, Minato's own unborn son was much more likely to procure that magic gene that enabled prodigies to be born.

Unbeknownst to Minato, he was a _tad_ conceited, amongst other things.

"I hope not," Jiraiya huffed, eyes still riveted to the village below. "Though with you being a genius and Kushina being a hothead, I think you two might get lucky and cancel out. You know, get a kid that's normal and not dangling on only one end of the spectrum."

"That would be…um, nice?" Minato struggled. "Though, Kakashi would be disappointed. He's looking forward for another boy genius to be born to take some of the attention away from him."

"What about Itachi? He's pretty smart."

Minato shrugged fiddling with his fountain pen. "I believe Kakashi is looking for a nobler sort. Itachi-kun is destined for ANBU. Kakashi believes Itachi-kun is bound to cause trouble when the boy gets bored with that and has nowhere to go in ranks but _down_. It is a straight and narrow path, really." But that was a problem for another day.

"A short one too," Jiraiya shook his head. "How old is Kakashi now? Twenty?"

"Sixteen," Minato corrected and leaned precariously back in his chair. "Youngest ANBU Captain on record."

"So far," Jiraiya said ominously. "You never joined ANBU."

"Nope." Minato pushed off his chair in a silent, fluid motion, with his flame-marked coattails billowing. "You know me, I cannot do the whole nocturnal thing. I need my beauty sleep."—what with sneaking in castles and assassinating daimyo's in the dark and whatnot. "Kakashi is trying to get out of it. I _have _been filling out the paperwork for his honorable discharge…" He cast another remorseful look at the growing heap under an impressive collection of paperweights.

"Well, you can't be Hokage if you're in ANBU," Jiraiya jeered. "Kakashi is after your job, Minato."

Minato shrugged. "For all you know I could bequeath my title to you in my will."

"Your successor can't be older than you, kid," Jiraiya reminded. "Sarutobi-sensei picked well. My time has come and gone. Now let us be off, before our darling, beautiful Kushina goes into labor before we arrive."

"It is induced," Minato reminded genially as he opened the door of his office with a _click_ and headed out, his sensei on his heels.

"Right, well I can't chance it. There's a village-wide bet going down and I am the proctor of results."

"There is a bet?" Minato asked, waving goodnight to his Chuunin staff, who were perfectly ignorant of the fact that Kushina was planned to give birth tonight rather than next week. Otherwise he would have been near trampled by their well-wishes and lauding of his impending fatherhood. "On what?"

"Hair color and I am personally charged with the overseeing the results."

"And how much did you bet?" Minato sent a sharp look over to his sensei.

Jiraiya was baffled. "Why only for the sake of inspiring revelry amongst the dear citizens of Konoha did I participate in such an act—"

"Sensei…" Minato felt the first pinpricks of anxiety swell under his skull.

Jiraiya sobered and became serious at Minato's distress. "A sizeable amount," he confessed seriously. "Enough to make me a vagabond for the next decade or so_ if_ I lose."

Minato jogged down a stairwell, shaking his head and did not pause for Jiraiya to catch up during his tirade. He walked briskly across the lobby, out the front and into a cool, autumn night.

"Minato, do not distress on your sensei's behalf for I am the great Sannin Jiraiya and have a marvelous plan to ensure success," Jiraiya called, his footfalls crunching on gravel.

"And that is…?" Minato kept on his strong gait, never wavering.

"Naturally, everyone is pulling for orange but I am in fact voting for the 'underdog' in a sense to wipe them all clean."

"Orange?" Minato wrinkled his nose. How little did people know of genetics nowadays?

"Yes, I know, hence why I chose fuchsia."

Minato stopped cold in his tracks. "Fuchsia?" he reiterated dryly.

"Which reminds me, Minato we must stop on the way to purchase hairdye in the case that our dear, little unborn Naruto should—"

"You're not dying my son's hair pink, sensei." Babies were already hideous enough.

"But—"

And in the most civilized and polite tone he could muster, Minato said, "Do you want to give me an aneurysm?"

"A wig, then?"

Minato then promptly turned on his heel and in the gritty backstreets of his village, disappeared.

"But—but Minato I'll be ruined!"

…

"Sh, easy now."

"I still feel something."

"Pain medication dulls your senses; we cannot go beyond herbal methods."

"Just give me the epidural, damn it!"

"Kushina," Biwako smacked the girl's wrist. "Tsunade-hime is doing the best she can!"

The heavily pregnant redhead groaned and threw her head back against the stone slab. "Ow."

Tsunade's face bloomed red and her hovering palms dimmed in their chakra. "She'll be stable through the labor."

"Just bear through it Kushina, I've given birth to six sons and never once did I want these _unnatural _remedies that you women beg for." Biwako crossed her arms, with silk sleeves folding in on themselves. "This is what your predecessor, Uzumaki Mito went through when she gave birth and now, so shall you."

"Did Obaa-san have to give birth in a cave as well?" Tsunade asked bitterly.

Kushina's head popped up and peered over her belly. "Yeah, this place _sucks._" She looked around the cavern, seeing flame-lit shadows dance across stone from ceremonial hearths.

"No, your grandmother did not, Tsunade-hime." The wrinkles in Biwako's face deepened. "This is the most secure area for Kushina. She does not have_ near_ the amount of control Mito-sama possessed over the Kyuubi no Yoko."

Kushina frowned. "Mikoto was allowed to get an epidural… Fugaku gave her own private room and she got flowers, lots and lots of flow—"

"Will you stop your grumbling," Biwako clapped a hand over the girl's mouth and removed it before she could bite it. "And where is Minato? He was due here an hour ago."

"Did you give clearance to the ANBU?" Tsunade asked as she prodded Kushina's swollen belly and the black swirls that inked across. "This ritual is top secret."

"The Hokage doesn't need clearance," Kushina snapped. "And I don't want him here. He is terrified of children. I would rather have my husband and son meet in a more… typical scene, not some cave." Minato's nerves were already frayed with the pregnancy, nowadays with the impending birth he was near nonexistent, always disappearing when she had to go crib shopping and near hyperventilating at the word 'baby'. He nearly broke his arm when he dove out the window to escape Mikoto's darling little boy and every bassinette she had purchased had mysteriously disappeared.

Hence, Uzumaki Kushina was trying to _ease _Minato into the whole fatherhood thing _slowly._

And meeting his son in a claustrophobic cave smelling of afterbirth and a demon trying to claws its way out of her screaming body and Biwako prodding him to cut the umbilical cord might actually cause the great Yellow Flash to _snap._

"Why? He is the father of your child." Biwako ran a very tired hand over her face. "Who would rather keep the Kyuubi sealed? Jiraiya or Minato?"

"The real question is who would you rather see your vagina," Tsunade said dryly.

Kushina rolled her eyes. "I taught them both. I can keep an eye on the seal better than any of them."

Tsunade bit her lip. "I am about to fully induce you, he needs to be here."

Biwako started pacing, her robes dragging on the stone floors. "_Do not_ until Minato is here. We cannot take any chances—"

There was movement outside the cave, the ANBU guard skittered in shadows and the translucent barrier surrounding the area trembled.

"Someone is here," Tsunade stood, fist clenched alongside her thigh.

Biwako ceased her pacing and sidled alongside the altar Kushina lay prone on. "The ANBU will take care of any passersby… Kushina did not make a very discreet leave of the village, after all," she said pointedly.

"It slipped!" Kushina defended. "I took Minato to see little Sasuke-chan and Mikoto pried it out of me, my due date."

"Which resulted in an information leak and a broken window," Biwako stated and began to aggressively grind herbs with a stone. "This mission is most likely compromised due to the fact Uchiha Mikoto wants to send flowers."

"I would like flowers for my… _cave_," Kushina said glibly imagining daises stashed in one of Biwako's ancient vases.

"A _top secret_ cave," Biwako corrected.

"Not anymore," Tsunade took a steady step forward and watched as the barrier wafting in front of the cave's entrance dissipated entirely.

Biwako and Kushina stilled.

"It has to be Minato," Kushina whispered into the silence.

An ANBU staggered in, hand clutching his side. "There has been a breach—"

His was promptly decapitated and his masked cranium rolled across the cavern floor like a white marble.

"Kushina get up," Tsunade ordered as she fell into a stance, eyes darting around for the intruder.

Kushina felt a deep pressure shoot down. She gasped, "I can't…"

"Tsunade-hime, her contractions have just increased tenfold." Biwako scuttled over to the girl and looked down at Kushina's grimacing face. "We cannot have her give birth without someone monitoring the seal!"

"That's the least of our problems," Tsunade bit out and watched as a shudder of movement was caught within her peripheral. "Just keep her breathing!" And the Sannin rushed into the darkness.

"Tsunade-hime!" Biwako called and Kushina let out a groan of pain.

A shadow fell over the dimly lit cavern, candles guttered out and the ceremonial hearth dimmed into ash. Darkness fell and moonlight spilled in to reveal a looming silhouette.

Biwako felt a chill run through her old bones. "Who are you?" she demanded placed herself between the intruder and Kushina.

The shadow's cowl slipped to reveal a twisted mask and baleful chuckle. "Irrelevant." The word rolled off of his tongue. "For you only need to my purpose."

"And what is your purpose?" Biwako watched as the man stepped forward, one echoing step at a time.

"To liberate the Kyuubi no Yoko."

It was then, Kushina started screaming.

…

Minato fiddled while Konoha (unbeknownst to him) was about to burn.

The secured area, or as Kushina had dubbed it the Cave of Misery, was just a scant kilometer away and here he was walking in circles around a tree while his son was about to be brought into this world.

He had been tracing and retracing his steps around a very nondescript tree in order to purge himself of his ridiculous phobia.

_Babies are cute. Babies are cuddly. Babies are soft—_

_Good, good,_ Minato mentally appraised himself.

_And squishy and ugly and oozy and poop! Babies poop! And oh, the feces and the spitup and gah—!_

_Bad Minato, bad,_ Minato mentally reprimanded and flung his skull against the tree bark.

"Sensei?"

Minato lifted his blond-fluff-filled skull off of the tree. "Ah, Kakashi," he greeted and straightened himself to look respectable. He was sort of a role model to the boy after all.

Kakashi pulled back his wolf porcelain mask and stared at his sensei with a blank expression. "Shouldn't you be somewhere?"

Minato crossed his arms in a very Hokage-like way. "And how would _you_ know?"

Nonplussed, Kakashi responded, "Kushina told me."

Minato blanched. "It was supposed to be a _secret_," Minato's voice _cracked_ and he cleared his throat to cover it up. "—a secret and what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be on some sort of top secret mission." Didn't he assign those, anymore?

Kakashi shook his head. "I was shafted with patrol duty and you are in the middle of my patrol."

"I was taking a walk," Minato defended.

"Maybe it is best that you are not there for the birth," Kakashi suggested.

Minato laughed nervously. "And why would I ever do that?"

"Because you are… hopeless, sensei," Kakashi said and shifted his sheathed tanto onto his back. "Let Kushina handle it."

"I sort of need to be there," Minato admitted. "More than just moral support, Kakashi, I am somewhat vital…"_—to Kushina's and Naruto's survival._

"Then why are you still talking to me?" Kakashi shook his head.

They would not dare induce Kushina before he got there, would they? Minato felt his pitiful anxiety be chased away with cold hard resolve. "Kakashi, watch out for Jiraiya and keep him occupied."

"Hai, sensei," Kakashi bowed his head. "And Rin wishes me to tell you congratulations."

"How many people _know_?" Minato's voice cracked _again._

"Roughly twenty three or so, half the village by now."

Minato felt his heart leap at the same pang of anxiety creep across his senses. "I should g—" His voice crumpled into his throat when a large tremor shook the earth beneath their feet and a resounding boom made birds scatter into the night air.

"What was that?" Kakashi breathed.

Minato shrugged. _"—I dunno."_ He was the Hokage, not some omniscient presence.

A rustle of shrubbery was heard and in less than a second, Kakashi had his white tanto unsheathed and Minato had a foreigner by the ear. "A spy?" Minato flicked the teenage boy's Suna hitai-ate. "Hello, _spy-san_."

"_N-No,"_ stammered the youth and clutched to his Chuunin vest were two squirming bundles.

"What—what is _that_?" Minato's voice lost all intimidation and he was just as terrified as the Suna Chuunin. Minato promptly let go of the teenager and the boy stumbled to the ground, earning a pitched wail to elicit from one of the bundles.

Minato clambered up a tree and watched warily from a branch.

Kakashi rolled his eyes and sheathed his inheritance. "Who are you?"

"Yasha—Yashamaru of Suna, I have…." He swallowed hard. "I have come to seek refuge within Konoha." He set the two bundles down on the damp grass reverently and prostrated himself before Kakashi. "Please take them as payment."

Kakashi toed one of the bundles. "Babies?"

Minato _'eeped'_ from within the tree.

"Twins," Yashamaru exclaimed.

"Okay…" Kakashi looked up to his sensei, _the Hokage_ stuck in a tree and the random Suna nin offering a pair of babies like they were new shoes. "Sorry, but Fire country doesn't use babies as currency."

"No, you don't understand," Yashamaru lifted his head up, eyes near frantic. "These are the Kazekage's children! One of them is the Ichibi no Jinchuuriki."

"What?" Kakashi snapped and his tongue hit his teeth hard. "Do you want to start a war?"

"_Psst."_

_Someone kill me_, Kakashi thought as Minato hailed him 'discreetly'. "What, sensei?"

Minato cupped his mouth with his palms and whispered, "Kakashi, ask him if he is a kidnapper?"

"Are you a kidnapper?" Kakashi asked the Suna-nin dryly.

"I saved them! I'm their uncle," Yashamaru defended. "Please you must take them in! I promised my sister I would protect them."

"No," Kakashi said. "Take them back. This is enough to warrant a war."

"_Psst."_

"Sensei, get down," Kakashi nearly begged.

Minato reluctantly plopped down onto the damp grass, but kept his distance from the squirming bundles of doom. "I can arrange an ANBU escort to take you and your…"

"Niece and nephew," Yashamaru supplemented.

"Right, back to Sunagakure and you be sure to tell the Kazekage that Konoha did not kidnap his…" Minato took a deep breath. _"Babies."_

"You don't understand, my brother-in-law wanted to have my niece killed and my nephew made into a Jinchuuriki."

Kakashi rose a brow at the gleam of red hair of the male twin. "Well it seems he accomplished half of it."

"My sister gave her own life so that my niece would survive the ritual, please, our Kazekage is unlike you Hokage-sama, he is a cruel man and sees his children more as weapons for his use."

Minato paused and mulled over this. This guy was really pulling on his heartstrings. "Did someone give you a script? You're really good at this."

Yashamaru looked horrified at the Yondaime's flippancy.

"Sensei…"

Minato leaned against the tree and regarded the whimpering bundles. "Listen, I understand your plight but I cannot start a war—put my village in danger for the sake of two of children." It was clean cut reality and it was harsh. "I have my own to worry about."

Yashamaru was scrambling. "It is because of _your_ son, Hokage-sama, that I am here."

Minato stilled. How many people knew of Naruto's birth? Was it international news by now? "Explain," he ordered and his voice lost all boyish tenor.

"Your wife, she is the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, yes?"

Minato cast a glance over to Kakashi, his student had been informed of Kushina's 'condition' the moment he entered into ANBU and even still, Minato felt as if he had to gauge everyone's reaction of his wife. She was first and foremost and any prejudice could evolve into much more dangerous ambitions. "Yes," Minato said. He trusted Kakashi, enough.

"Then you must know that childbirth is the weakest time for the seal," Yashamaru said desperately.

_How does he know that?_ Minato dismayed. _He's just some guy I found in the bushes, so of course he would know, of all people!_

"There is a madman willing to exploit that, one that wishes to free the Kyuubi and harness it as a weapon against Konoha," Yashamaru informed them and cast a fretful look to his niece. "This man knows how to break the seal of the Kyuubi and unleash the Bijuu."

"That would kill Kushina," Minato said and his voice was flat, _dead_. "And my son."

"Yes, however I offer you the key to saving them_ both_, if you harbor_ both_ of the twins."

"A life for a life," Kakashi mused and cupped his masked chin. "This seems far too coincidental, sensei. He is forcing your hand in this—this may not even be true, but a lie to incriminate you."

"How?" Minato asked immediately. Even if this was a ruse… he could not afford to let it slip.

"My niece…Kagome," Yashamaru gestured to the squirming, whimpering bundle. He pulled down the veil of cloth and revealed a dark eyed babe with a tuft of jet for hair. "She is able to negate demonic energies, she controls her brother—Gaara— and his sand protects her." Yashamaru revealed the other twin with a trembling hand and staring back at them was a wide-eyed, silent infant who had small eddies of sand dancing along his tummy. "The Kyuubi's seal is irreparable, you must reseal it another host and then you may save Kushina's life in the process by having Kagome heal her."

"Sealing still requires a life source," Minato said gravely. "And who would be the next host?"

"Your son," Yashamaru confessed solemnly. "However, I can guarantee that Kagome can control both your son and her brother as Jinchuuriki. As for the life source, I offer myself."

Minato narrowed his eyes. "Why? I could have supplemented myself or even Kushina as the sacrifice. Why offer yourself?"

Yashamaru stared numbly at the twins. "Because I have sworn an oath I cannot keep… I seek refuge only for my sister's children, they would assimilate into your village easily, I on the other hand would draw too much attention both from your own people and mine."

"An oath you cannot keep?" Kakashi echoed.

Yashamaru nodded. "Every time I look unto my nephew… I see a demon. I was sworn by sister to protect both of her children. I cannot do so. I only ever see the demon that holds my niece hostage and took my sister's life… Please," he looked up with hysterical eyes. "I cannot go on like this, my life… the grief is eating me from the inside out!"

"The Kazekage will discover I have his children, the world will label me as a kidnapper and my village will see me as instigating war," Minato said.

"If you do not take them, Hokage-sama," Yashamaru began and looked into the starless, moon-laden sky. "Then your village, your wife and your son will all perish under the Kyuubi."

It was at that moment, a roar pierced the air and the earth shook once again.

In the distance, a demon was freed and a little boy was born.

Minato was left with no choice.

He just wished the choice did not involve diapers.

"I don't actually have to touch them, do I?"

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Am I the only one who adores Minato? Well, **delete** or keep?

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><p><span>Update Schedule<span>

_45+ Reviews= Continued._

_45 or less = Deleted._


	2. Night Upholds This Heart

**Author's Note: **Really, I can't believe I actually found time to write this. This was done before dawn becaue that is only time of day I have to myself anymore; which is saying alot because I am NOT a morning person;) ~KK

**Alternate Universe:** Alive!Minato & Kushina. Kagome and Gaara are twins living in Konoha. Non-Massacre Uchiha Clan.

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><p><em>Byblis<em>

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><p>And after the storm,<br>I run and run as the rains come  
>And I look up, I look up,<br>on my knees and out of luck,  
>I look up.<br>Night has always pushed up day  
>You must know life to see decay<br>But I won't rot, I won't rot,  
>Not this mind and not this heart.<p>

—_After the Storm_

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><p>Namikaze Minato always believed he had a rather <em>cool<em> name.

But looking at Gaara, whose name resembled a hacking cough and Kag—being short for Kagome— rhyming with _gag_ was well enough to elicit both.

"Kakashi," Minato pointed to his student. "Take _Gah-rah_ to the hospital. Then round up an ANBU compliment," he said in his _Hokage voice._

Kakashi cast a baleful look through the tree cover and to the swirling mass of red frothing chakra. It glowed as if there was a massive forest fire in the night. "The ANBU have most likely assumed the situation, sensei." Or maybe they were just as naive as their _fearless leader_ and assumed Kushina was taking it out for a walk.

"Just rally everyone together, Kakashi," Minato sighed. "I can't exactly send Spy-san into our village, now can I? They might actually…" He cupped his hands and whispered discreetly. _"—attack him." _

Kakashi flicked his eyes to a quivering Yashamaru, who seemed to wince at every little earth tremor the Kyuubi was eliciting. "Fine," he sighed. "And the girl?"

"She'll come with me," Minato announced. "Spy-san will be carrying her—_won't you Spy-san?"_

"O-Of course!" Yashamaru nodded furiously. "If I can keep up with the Yellow Flash."

"Ah, dilemma." Minato mulled on this. "On second thought, wait here Spy-san. My student Rin will be here shortly."

"She will?" Kakashi stiffened.

"Well, after Kakashi retrieves her, of course," Minato added. "That was your cue, Kakashi."

Kakashi nodded and went to scoop up the silent Gaara—

Only to be deflected by a thick veil of sand slicing his palm open. "What the—" Kakashi stared dazedly at the jagged crescent of blood.

"_Gaara,"_ Yashamaru chastised the Jinchuuriki like one would a nipping puppy. "Sorry," he apologized nervously. "He and um, Kagome have never quite been separated… _ever_."

"Because that is normal…" Kakashi just sighed. "I'll get Rin to retrieve both of them and bring them to you, sensei."

"Right, then Kakashi explain the situation to Shikaku, he will rally the Jonin while the ANBU have already engaged," Minato watched as cloud of weaponry careened towards the Kyuubi's flank and bounced off as they were useless pebbles. "Keep an eye out for Jiraiya-sensei as well—Oh and if you see Sarutobi-sama—"

"Sensei…"

"Yes, Kakashi?"

"Just go."

"Right, and Spy-san if you run, well you'll be dead so do not try it, _please_."

Yashamaru bowed once again, his head near buried into the damp turf. "I would never…"

"Good," Minato grinned and turned around, coattails billowing with flames. He looked at the demon peeking over the tree line. The moon pierced the sky and was near violent in its glare. The night was starless. The Kyuubi roared. Minato watched platoon after platoon of his men throw themselves at the demon.

"Sensei?" Kakashi outstretched a hand to his departing sensei. "What will you be doing?" _Please, do not say it…_

"To fight the Kyuubi and possibly kill a madman," Minato looked up into the midnight sky. _I should be paid overtime for this._

"We should keep this 'madman' alive for interrogation."

"Not when he kidnaps my son," Minato added and his voice was vacant as he watched the demon flick a tail to deflect a trivet of his ANBU. Their bodies resembled fleas being shrugged off.

"He kidnapped Naruto?" Kakashi looked astonished. "How do you know that?"

Minato shrugged. "It's what I would do—now if you excuse me, I must attend to my wife first, for I assure you she is far more dangerous than a rampaging demon and insane kidnapper combined."

"Good luck, sensei."

"Don't need it."

…

"Gamabunta!" Minato called from the tree line as he loped alongside the hopping toad.

The Great Toad stilled and let out a hearty laugh, causing the trees to tremble from the squall. _"Minato!"_ he greeted and let the Yondaime dart up his pebbled arm and up to his crown.

"Where is Jiraiya-sensei?" Minato peered over the toad's brow and hung his blond head in the summons's line of sight. "Or did you hop all the way from Mount Myoboku?"

"Hah, you wish. I would never go to so much trouble for you." Gamabunta took a long drag of his pipe. "Jiraiya went after Tsunade and told me to make sure the Kyuubi does not reach the village until you get here."

"Well I am here. Where did Tsunade go?" Minato looked around, seeing the Kyuubi just starting to break free of chakra laden chains his ANBU were lacing over the demon. The Bijuu was no longer a glint of chakra or a disembodied tremor. The beast was in full view, crouched and coiled back in its massive, gangly frame. Its tails flicked irritably and with every twitch of movement, a new tempest ravaged forth or a tremor racked the earth.

"Who knows where the slug-lover went," Gamabunta's voice boomed. "All I know is your little redhead is in pretty bad shape."

"Take me to Kushina," Minato ordered and the toad leapt forth in a spine-rattling jump.

The cave dashed into the view and Gamabunta flattened a throng of trees in his landing. A three-pronged kunai bloomed within Minato's palm and he tossed the weapon straight into the cave.

He flickered out of sight—

"Minato!"

—only to reappear on the cavern wall. "Hello," he waved and dropped down to his wife. Kushina was strewn across a crude stone altar and her loosely fitted shift was stained with blood. "Where is Naruto?" Minato touched her belly and found it smaller and less firm beneath the damp fabric. "Did he take him?" he whispered desperately.

Kushina felt Minato's hand cradle her skull and at that moment, all tension fled and she felt very weak. "Yes," she whispered and felt her strong wall crumble at Minato's hopeful eyes for their son's safety. "The Kyuubi…" She shook her head. "Minato, I don't have much time…" she croaked. "Biwako saved me," Kushina cast a look over Minato's shoulder to the crumpled form of the elderly woman. "But I've lost too much blood…"

"I don't understand," Minato looked over Kushina, her natural blush was chased away by a snow white complexion and her voice was a lilting whisper. "Biwako would have kept the Kyuubi from killing you," he said lowly. The old woman would not have been able to prevent it, but she would have been able to keep Kushina alive during the process.

"I never—never gave birth to Naruto," Kushina trembled. "That man…that man ripped my baby out of me!" Kushina's voice collapsed into sobs.

Minato felt something run cold in his veins.

Kushina felt his grip on her tighten. "Minato," she pulled on his cloak. "Minato, just promise—Minato listen to me!"

The Yondaime Hokage just took his bleeding wife in his arms silently.

"Minato, don't— you have to save the village—_It's useless_!"

Minato cast a cold look down to his wife. "Your death is useless, Kushina. I will be useless if you die, Kushina—so don't tell me otherwise."

For once, Namikaze Minato did not listen to his wife.

The world blurred around her before she could protest and Minato's safe house materialized around her. A flickering lantern brought warmth and a dangling pronged kunai glinted in the firelight. "Minato, we don't have time for this, you need to defend Konoha against the Kyuubi—_you need to save our son_— not help an already dying woman!"

"_Kushina,"_ Minato set his wife down gently onto the tatami mat. He ran a hand over his face and blushed a furious _pink_. "Can you just _shut up_ for once?"

Kushina gaped, but her tongue fell still.

"Now, I don't have any tags for the Hospital so I'll have to run you there—"

"Get Tsunade, she's with Jiraiya at the front lines—"

Minato was already gone.

Kushina barely had time to sit up before her husband reappeared with two Sannin by the scruff of their necks. Tsunade looked nauseous and Jiraiya looked smug.

"Next time you go off to chase after a madman _do not_ leave my wife—who was in labor by the way and has a demon wanting to _get out_—to fend for herself," Minato said and promptly let the both of them go. "Or something might go wrong, say like the most dangerous of all Bijuu escaping and madman kidnapping my newborn son." Minato was actually seething.

An undignified Tsunade straightened her robes and cast a bitter look to Jiraiya and Minato. "I didn't think he… I didn't know…"

Minato pinched the bridge of his nose. _He was going to snap—_

"Tsunade-hime, why don't you start healing our darling Kushina while mind over her seal," Jiraiya pushed Tsunade gently forward and the female Sannin was slowly coerced into healing the hemorrhaging ex-Jinchuuriki. Once Tsunade's hands became alit with chakra, Kushina's pained expression melted and she stared numbly at the wall.

Jiraiya clapped a hand over Minato's shoulder and leant in close. "You know I cannot repair the seal, Minato."

"Neither can I," Minato said fervently.

"She'll wither away; a Jinchuuriki's seal needs a constant source of chakra to maintain itself. It feeds off of the Bijuu for both fuel and a way to keep the Bijuu in a submissive state, without a Bijuu—"

"It feeds off of Kushina. I know that, sensei."

"Then you know that her chakra reserves cannot even compare to that of a Bijuu. It is only a matter of time before she withers away, kid," Jiraiya confessed solemnly.

Minato lifted Jiraiya's heavy arm off of his shoulder. "I have a plan."

"I knew you would," Jiraiya winked and approached Kushina with a tender stare. "Now, get out of here, I'll keep the seal stable until you come back." Jiraiya crouched beside Kushina with a tentative smile and touch to her bloodied abdomen. "Now Kushina, my dear, by any chance can you remember your son's hair color?"

Minato shook his head and disappeared—

"Rin," he greeted as he materialized into the clearing he had once occupied. "Spy-san," he nodded over to the groveling Suna-nin.

Rin blinked, never quite accustomed to her sensei's antics. "Sensei!" She beamed and cradled in each arm was a bundle of _doom._ "Kakashi gave me your kunai," she proclaimed as she gestured to the three-pronged kunai lodged into the dirt by her boots.

"I trust he explained the situation to you?" Minato strode over the wet grass and to his little student. She was a Jounin now and very infatuated with Kakashi to say the least.

"Yes," she blushed and the purple marks on her cheeks flushed a deep violet. "Right before he went off with nearly fifty ANBU."

"Good," Minato nodded. "Now I need to take you somewhere—leave the kunai and don't you dare let that baby drool on me." He grabbed her by the scruff of her olive flak jacket and dragged into his Hiraishin.

They stepped into his safe house where Kushina was near unconscious and the two Sannin hovered over her with concentrated brows and hands aglow. _"Kushina-danna?" _Rin paled at Kushina's bloodied front.

"Be right back," Minato disappeared once again.

Rin scuttled over, cradling the two infants close to her. "Tsunade-sama, please let me help."

Tsunade did not respond.

Jiraiya looked up, his warm features looked hollowed. "Let Tsunade concentrate, Rin-chan. Now, what is it you have there? And please, _please _do not tell me the one with red hair is our dear little Naruto." I'll be ruined—_ruined!_

"Oh, Minato-sensei didn't tell you?" Rin blinked and looked down at the twins, Kagome was cooing and had her fist lodged into her mouth with spittle dripping off of her chin. Gaara remained silent, watchful and utterly still. "They're from Suna and they can save Kushina-danna."

"Ah, right…" Jiraiya's brows drew together, obviously having more questions than initially. "Minato _would _find two infants in the middle of the woods that just so happened to conveniently be able to heal his wife."

"Jiraiya…" Tsunade gritted out.

"Yes, my sweet?"

"You're mumbling is _highly_ distracting."

Not a second later, Minato flickered back in with a fraught Yashamaru by the ear. "Sorry, Spy-san sort of resisted."

Yashamaru promptly vomited onto the floor.

Minato dropped him unceremoniously onto the tatami and frowned at the toes of his boots. "Gross."

"Minato, stop jumping around so much and conserve your chakra to fight the Kyuubi and the madman," Jiraiya chastised and then gestured to the babies Rin was cradling. "Mind explaining?"

"Oh, Spy-san will explain—" Minato stilled as the safe house trembled.

Tsunade paused and looked blankly about the walls. "The Kyuubi has just broken through the village walls."

"_Sensei…"_ Rin clutched the babies closer to her and Kagome let out a whimper. Gaara was silent, but a thin veil of sand found its way to him and also, over his sister.

"Gotta go!" Minato announced before disappearing altogether.

All eyes went to the puking Suna-nin.

"Well, boy speak up," Jiraiya ordered. "Whose babies are these and how can they save Kushina?"

"They are Kazekage-sama's," Yashamaru explained as he wiped his lips and stepped timidly over to some of the world's most powerful shinobi. He looked at Rin with a nervous smile. "May I see them, Rin-san?"

"Of course," Rin handed them off, breaking the sand coiled around her wrists.

Yashamaru took Kagome readily but gulped when he took the silent Gaara. "Now Kagome-chan, you have to help someone and Gaara, Kagome will be away from you for just a minute."

Gaara blinked. Kagome cooed with a gummed smile.

Yashamaru placed Gaara on the floor beside him. "Kagome must have contact with Kushina-san's skin."

Tsunade's brows knitted. "Let me heal the flesh then, she is still… torn open pretty bad." Her hands flared brightly with chakra and her face took on a sickly glow. "There," Tsunade announced before taking a kunai and dragging it along the dress's front to reveal Kushina's stomach. "I can't do much for the blood."

Dried blood was splashed against her pale stomach and along the course of her abdomen ran a jagged scar that was thick and vein-like. Yashamaru felt sick once again, but stemmed the feeling, as he un-swaddled his niece and placed her against the Yondaime's wife. "There, now Kagome-chan find the _bad _chakra."

The little girl wiggled and then her chubby limbs stilled so that she _hugged_ Kushina's tummy. She cooed against Kushina's stomach.

Kushina stirred, her eyes fluttered open and she looked up to see a small tuft of dark hair resting against her stomach. Her mind was blurred but she took it as a good omen. "Naruto… Naruto…" she whispered and stroked the baby's soft dark hair.

Jiraiya fidgeted. "We're losing her," he said pointedly to Yashamaru.

"Wait," Yashamaru held up a hand. "Just watch."

It was then Kagome started _giggling_ and her small little body took on a translucent glow of the softest pinks. The light scintillated like sunlight on water's surface and seeped into Kushina's stomach. A moment later, Kushina's back arched and she let out a deep groan of pain.

"What's happening?" Tsunade demanded.

"_Kushina-danna!"_ Rin immediately grabbed the woman's hand, who squeezed it back mercilessly. "She's in pain. Help her!"

"Kushina-san, you must hold on, Kagome-chan is closing up your seal and since you have no Bijuu to hold, you are feeling what the demon would," Yashamaru explained and saw the same agonizing marred across this woman's features as he did with Karura's. "Please just hold on, it will only last another minute."

But Kushina's groans turned to screams and they left her vocal chords ragged and everyone wincing from the strangled sounds.

"Kushina, darling, just be still—" Jiraiya tried to stroke the young woman's hair.

"You really think she is going to listen!" Tsunade snapped.

Jiraiya _sulked._

Another minutes passed and Kushina's screaming became strangled gasps.

Rin wiped the tears from her eyes. "It sounds so painful," she whispered.

"It is painful," Tsunade crossed her arms, a vein that swam across her forehead convulsed.

Kushina quieted in the next moment and tension fled from the room. Everyone peered over and Kushina's expression was slack with rivulets of sweat formed on her brow and arms laced across her stomach, Kushina slept and kept the baby that saved her life close. Kagome did not stir.

Gaara's sand materialized out of thin air and formed a helix in the air that scooped under his sister. Kagome whimpered slightly, but fell back to sleep as her brother nestled her closer to him and enclosed them in a tight dome of sand.

Rin poked the _ball of sand_. "Won't they suffocate?"

Yashamaru laughed nervously. "They have yet to—Gaara does that when Kagome-chan sleeps."

"And when _he_ sleeps?"

"Oh," Yashamaru scratched his chin. "Gaara doesn't really sleep. _Ever._"

"Right, because that is normal," Jiraiya rolled his eyes.

In that same moment, Minato somersaulted back with some horrible screeching creature locked within his arms.

Jiraiya winced, it was worse than Kushina in mind-blowing agony. "Minato—the hell did you get? A baby baboon?"

Minato promptly ran over to Rin and dumped the squirming thing into her lap. He wiped his hands along his cloak and shuddered. _"Gross, gross—"_

Realization donned on everyone and as Rin held up the squirming naked infant, she announced. _"Naruto-chan!"_

"What color is his hair?" Jiraiya squinted. "Blond? Damn it!"

Tsunade smirked and leaned back wearily against the wall. "Good job, Namikaze."

"You…You _killed_ the masked man?" Yashamaru stammered.

Minato crouched beside Kushina and stroked her matted red hair. "No," he said darkly. "He had a spice-time Jutsu similar to mine, though instead of travel he dematerialized altogether and left a very small window for me to hit." Which left unsaid of course was that he was able to hit it at the precise moment. "He retreated altogether."

"And the Kyuubi?" Jiraiya asked.

Minato let out a shaky breath. "Teleported away from the village. I broke the man's control over the Bijuu with a contract seal so it's just a rampaging demon but I don't have much time before it targets the village once again."

Yashamaru's eyes widened. _"A-Amazing."_

Minato shrugged. "Not really, I still managed to get hit." He parted his cloak over his ribs and his whole right side was staunched with blood. "The Kyuubi actually wanted to kill me."

Jiraiya snickered. "Heaven forbid someone wants to scuff that pretty face of yours Minato."

"I know right," Minato patted his side and his palm came back soaked. "I… do not feel so great."

"I should heal that," Tsunade said, but made no move to get up.

"No time," Minato stood, a lingering hand on Kushina's cheek. Red fingerprints were already drying on her fair complexion. "You ready, Spy-san?"

Yashamaru cast a look over to the ball of sand that housed his niece and nephew. "I am." He would be with Karura soon enough.

"Good, because you are carrying Naruto."

…

It was a quick and relatively painless process.

Sealing the Kyuubi was not the problem, the problem was making sure Yashamaru stayed conscious enough so he did not have to actually touch his screeching son.

In a matter of minutes, followed by a dramatic sonic boom, the Kyuubi was sealed and Yashamaru was _dead._ There would be causalities, there always were but the most that died here tonight were trees rather than people. Minato cast a forlorn look across the trampled and razed forests that surrounded his village and gave Konoha its namesake.

Minato _liked_ trees.

"Gamabunta," Minato breathed out as he traipsed along the toad's spine and over to Yashamaru's crumpled corpse. Naruto was squealing in the dead Suna-nin's grip. "Take his body back to Konoha, I don't have enough chakra to transport both him and Naruto."

"_Just get going, kid,"_ Gamabunta's voice boomed and the night was utterly silent. "You look like you are about to collapse."

"I am about to collapse." He just had a reputation to uphold.

Minato looked down at the teenage Suna-nin, he had grown rather attached to him in the span of forty or so minutes they had known each other.

And he had sacrificed himself in the process—saving Minato's wife, his son and his village.

_Damn_, Minato thought as he tore his sleeve to make a pseudo sling for Naruto. Now he was going to have to make a plaque or a memorial or _something_ in this kid's honor and he would have to give a speech—

Minato _hated_ speeches.

_Bastard._

Minato aptly looped the torn fabric of his cloak around his screeching, pink-faced son. _Kami, were all babies this hideous?_ Minato lifted the sling that his tiny newborn dangled in and by the very tips of his fingers Minato_ carried_ his son. _Progress_, Minato mentally commended as he spied three dashed marks across each respective cheek. "Oh, that is cute. You have whiskers."

Naruto screeched some more.

"See? We're bonding," Minato grinned and stepped into a Hiraishin back to his safe house.

Only to find it vacated.

"Damn, why am I always ditched?" Minato looked around and saw a scrap of paper dancing in the draft. He stepped on it with his boot and in Rin's dainty little script read, _hospital._

Minato was already there—_on the ceiling_—just above Rin. His little student kicked the air and hummed absently in one of the lobby chairs. It was Naruto's latest encore of screeches that alerted her.

Rin jumped and looked up. "Sensei!"

"Hello, Rin," he greeted and dangled Naruto in front of her. "You mind taking him?"

Rin giggled as she took the wailing Naruto. "That's a clever trick, a baby tourniquet?"

"You know what they say—babies kill on contact," Minato flipped off of the ceiling and landed, albeit wobbly in the knees, onto the tile.

"Nobody says that, sensei."

"_It's an old saying_—where is everyone?" Minato glanced around the dark, deserted lobby of Konoha General. The receptionist's desk was vacant and had a jar of lollipops just begging to be pilfered.

"They evacuated, sensei," Rin said as if it were the obvious truth. "It was mandated by both the ANBU and Sandaime."

"Oh, well that was unnecessary," Minato scratched the back of his head. "Don't people trust me anymore?"

Rin shrugged. "_I do_, that's why I snuck away and found Kakashi."

"Breaking village-wide mandates and being an accomplice to a battle of epic proportions," Minato tousled her hair. "I taught you well."

Rin blushed. "You should see Tsunade before Kushina-danna."

"Right, and Rin could you—?" Minato's ears perked at the fervent footfalls of heels.

Rin rolled her eyes and scooped Naruto onto her chest. "I'll carry him, sensei, don't worry."

Tsunade wafted from one of the halls and nodded over to Rin. "Get him into Kushina, quick, before I have to tie her down."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!" Rin scuttled out of sight, with Naruto in hand.

Tsunade leaned against the wall. "You did it, Namikaze."

Minato shrugged. "All in a day's work."

"One of these days that big head of yours is going to explode."

"And I'll go to you for the bandaid, Tsunade-sama," Minato said reverently.

Tsunade shook her head and cast a long look to the pane of glass that stretched across the lobby's south side. The moon was setting, it was full and low in the sky. It spilled into the room eagerly, mixing with the shadows on black and white tiles. The city lights were completely out, power lines were damaged in the attack and it had been the least of everyone's worries.

"How many did we lose?" Minato asked.

"Everyone who relied on the hospital's life support is gone, and I have a feeling some disabled were crushed by the crowds," Tsunade said, amber eyes fixed on the horizon, where darkness met darkness. "We'll see what morning brings."

Minato nodded. There were always causalities. He just needed to keep on telling himself that.

Tsunade beckoned him down the hall and the Yondaime Hokage followed like a terrified child. They walked down the halls in silence for a long while.

"Minato," Tsunade spoke first and he could not remember her ever using _not_ using his surname. "There is no good way to say this but there was a lot of damage done to Kushina."

Minato could have said, 'what do you mean?' but the terrifying thing was, is that he already knew.

Tsunade paused in front of a nondescript door and looked at the Yellow Flash _hard._ "She won't be able to have any more children, Namikaze. Do you understand?"

Minato nodded so slightly and heard laughter wash over his senses from within the hospital room. He tentatively pushed open the door to reveal—

An elated Kushina making hysterical 'aahhing' and 'oohing' sounds like an ape as she coddled her son—who was not screeching— along with a giggling Rin who was playing peek-a-boo with a stoic, unresponsive Gaara and then—

Kagome crawling around on the bed sheets, gnawing Kushina's red hair and cooing at the smaller Naruto.

Kushina beamed at Minato. "Look there's daddy," she pointed for Naruto to see. Naruto's half-lidded eyes blinked in a dazed expression. "Kagome-chan say _hi._"

"_Baaah,"_ Kagome gurgled as she stuffed her fist into her mouth.

Minato looked at Tsunade, smug as ever. "I think she will be fine."

"Minato, come hold your son," Kushina demanded.

Minato obeyed slightly. He took _three steps_ forward.

"Here," Kushina lifted the sleepy-eyed newborn. "Support his head and don't touch the squishy thing up top."

Before Minato could protest, Kushina quite literally threw their _newborn _son at him. Minato was forced to catch him, he may not have been Father of the Year but he sure as hell was not going to drop his son!

"Minato, open your eyes," Kushina ordered.

Unbeknownst to him, he had sort of _flinched_. Minato peaked and limply hanging in his grasp was his son.

Naruto blinked lazily. Minato blinked back.

Kushina squealed at this defining moment. "Look, Kagome-chan!" Kushina drew the little tot to her lap.

"_Baaah."_

"I know, right?" Kushina quirked her head.

Minato laughed nervously. "_Hey—hey_ look at me! I'm _holding_ my son."

_Progress_, he mentally lauded.

It was a beautiful thing.

"Just don't drop him, Namikaze."

"Be careful, sensei…"

"Hey Kushina, he looks nothing like you," Minato announced and lifted Naruto _up._

"I know_ that,"_ she pouted. "You don't have to be an ass about it."

"Sensei you shouldn't twirl with babies…"

"I'm not 'twirling', Rin—"

Naruto promptly _spit up_ all along Minato's face.

A deathly silence fell over the room.

"Minato, now don't freak out—"

"Namikaze, if you drop that—"

"Sensei, put him _slowly_—"

"_Baaah."_

Whether it was from blood loss or pure undulated horror, Minato would never know for the great Yellow Flash fainted.

Ah, progress.

He would learn.

…

Three months later, the twins turned one year old and war with Suna was officially declared.

Minato pitied the souls who tried to pry Kagome and Gaara away from Kushina.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Wow, your guys' support is amazing! I'm so stressed right now and seeing you guys loving this story makes me want to write despite how exhausted I feel! I love you all so much! ~KK

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><p><span>Update Schedule<span>

75+ Reviews = Continued (Quickly)

45+ Reviews = Continued

45 or less = Deleted


	3. Dark, Dark Balloons

**Author's Note:** This was meant to be split between two chapters. Hopefully you guys won't make me regret it! I love you all ~KK

**Alternate Universe:** Alive!Minato & Kushina. Kagome and Gaara are twins living in Konoha. Non-Massacre Uchiha Clan.

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><p><em>Byblis<em>

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><p>Let's go slowly, discouraged,<br>We'll burn the pictures instead  
>When it's all over we can barely discuss<br>For one minute only  
>Not with the fortunate only<br>Thought it could have been something else  
>These days it comes, it comes, it comes, it comes, it comes, and goes . . .<p>

— _Lisztomania _

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><p>Winter in Fire country was never welcome; thankfully it was typically short, to the point and never quite sweet. Ice settled quickly and snow fell. Everything melted by noon and every Leaf villager was knee deep in mud by January. However, night fell, congealed the mud and everyone's hearts as well.<p>

No one ever slept well during a war.

Morning brought some reprieve, a sharp intake of ice into the lungs always rattled the bones and roused the soul. Villagers huddled in tight little knots, whispering and puffing into their rubbing palms.

_The Hokage is mad…_

_A genius you mean, we have two Jinchuuriki…_

_Suna is too weak to oppose us…_

_Not if Iwa or Kumo join in…_

_Suna has enemies too…_

_The enemy of our enemy is __**not **__our friend when ninja are concerned…_

_There is always Mizu…_

_There is always __**somebody**__…_

The same cycle rolled on wearily, vendors propped up stalls and opened shop. Women scuttled to the markets, vying for imported fruits and dismaying over the lack of Suna crafts. Trade stopped the moment the Hokage received reports of Suna scouts at his borders.

Kushina was still getting an earful from Mikoto about the lack of decent silk, which inadvertently meant that Minato got an earful. But when did he ever _not_?

Despite the dreary weather, the sun poked out of the pale blue winter sky and just as well, Konoha's own little ray of sunshine was roaming the streets.

Minato twiddled his thumbs as he adorned Kushina's newest creation coiled around his neck. It was quite warm, he mused, the knitted scarf that blazed with the most incriminating color this side of Konoha.

"Nice scarf," Jiraiya appeared out of an alleyway and fell into step with Minato's idle stroll.

"Good morning, sensei," Minato greeted as he gnawed on his dumpling. "—and thank you. Kushina knitted it for me."

"It's called crocheting, kid—and it's purple."

"Periwinkle, actually. Wanna a dumpling?" Minato's palm bloomed with a bento box meticulously packed by his kind wife.

"Don't mind if I do," Jiraiya said and leaned forward to swipe the doughy balls of deliciousness. "You're up early. The council doesn't meet until noon."

Minato shrugged. "War briefing and I have to prepare what I am going to say to the Clan patriarchs."

"You mean you have to come up with a good excuse for instigating international warfare?"

"Well, when you put it like that you make me sound…"

"Power-crazed? Inhumane?"

"I was going to say awesome," Minato replied glibly.

"Point proven," Jiraiya tousled Minato's blond spikes. "You might just be a little insane genius after all."

"I did tell you I failed every mental evaluation test since I was six, right?"

Jiraiya tilted his side, side to side, considering. "I believe you mentioned it once or twice—something about random impulses on skinning people alive?"

"Something like that," Minato's eyes darted to a cluster of civilian men by a dango stall. They were working class, most likely stationed within the quarries or harbors and were back to Konoha for the winter. They had such little say in the world around them. Minato wondered… "Excuse me!"

Six heads, each with their respective topknot, looked up and each set of eyes slightly widened at their fair-haired, fearless and world renowned leader marching over to them—_with a purple scarf wrapped proudly around his neck. _

Jiraiya raised a brow. This would be interesting.

Minato approached, grinned his typical brilliant smile that made people smile back, _most of the time._ "Ohayo," Minato bowed slightly, albeit awkwardly with his bento box and being mindful to not let his scarf slip into the mud. "My name is Namikaze Minato. What is all of yours?"

Six pairs of eyes _blinked._ Six tongues rattled off six very plain names that Minato forgot the moment he heard them.

"Well, you might not know but I am the Hokage—"

_Is this some sort of joke?_

_He must think we're stupid…_

_I knew I should've paid my taxes…_

_You don't pay your taxes?_

_He's probably going to kill us…_

_He can hear __**all**__ of you!_

"—and well, I was wondering what your opinion was on this whole '' thing."

A pause rolled by and Jiraiya watched as Minato was crowded around by middle aged men like a new toy behind a windowpane before children. Minutes passed, Minato said his peace and while a few remained unconvinced and one man got red-faced about it, they all eventually conceded to Minato's infectious charisma and infallible ethics.

"So you see, if I was to hand over the twins I would be breaking my oath on protecting them and my wife would be devastated to lose them to a village who would use them as weapons. In the end we are promoting the greater good—oh, and did I mention Kagome saved my wife's life?"

All six men shook their heads.

"Oh, right that is _classified_ _etcetera, etcetera _… just know she did and will help us much more in the future. I do not want any resentment forming towards her or _Gah-rah _from my village."

All six men nodded dutifully with respectful bows and reverent mutterings, they scattered and spread the word.

Minato walked triumphantly back to Jiraiya. "Sorry, sensei, I just needed to do a little damage control."

"You fear a coup d'état?" Jiraiya asked darkly.

Minato scratched the back of his neck. "Something like that."

"Well, if it helps I believe people near revere you like a god after the Kyuubi attacked."

"They wouldn't if they knew it was my fault and that my wife was the prior Jinchuuriki and my son is the current."

"Ah, but that is as you said _'classified etcetera, etcetera'_?"

"Exactly," Minato remarked absently as they crested a rather steep road and came upon the Hokage tower pressing wearily into the bleak winter sky. The squat maroon and rimed building shouldered an impressive weight of snow on its roof, typically reserved for ceremonies and official use, it was now rendered useless from last night's weather.

_I'll get some Genin to shovel it off_, Minato mentally noted and strode forth with Jiraiya clogging his sandals (Minato wondered when his sensei's toes would succumb to frostbite) close behind.

"After you," Jiraiya scurried forth to open the door for his student.

Minato shivered into his cloak and was welcomed with the luxurious heating of his 'office'. The lobby was plainly furnished with a few wilting plants sipping at the pale light from the windowsills and a stack of heavily outdated magazines. Minato flicked on the light switch while Jiraiya slipped open the blinds.

"Not again," Jiraiya commented as the light revealed Tsunade overworked apprentice.

"Ohayo, Shizune-san," Minato greeted the slumped form of his receptionist.

Shizune jumped up from her desk, frazzled and looked dazedly up at the Yondaime. "O-Ohayo, Hokage-sama."

"Did you fall asleep here, again?" he leaned down and rose a brow at the drool spot on the rather ancient text the Chuunin had been studying before fatigue had gotten the best out of her.

Shizune blushed. "H-hai, Tsunade-sama wants me to be Jounin and she… is sort pushing me a little hard."

Translation: _Please, for the love of god help me!_

But to Minato there were two types of people in the world— those who belonged to the awesome Team Jiraiya and Team Tsunade.

Then of course was the miscellaneous group that Minato filtered the other 99.7 % of the world's population into.

However, Shizune was definitely on Team Tsunade and Minato, well that went without saying.

Minato smiled down at the teenager. "Well, be sure to have the coffee ready for the council meeting this morning. We are going to war and any fatigue will impede our major decision making skills and may cause catastrophe for our nation and even for the world as a whole."

Shizune paled. "When—when is this meeting, Hokage-sama?"

"Three minutes."

Shizune was already down the hall fumbling with the coffee bean grinder.

Jiraiya shook his head. "Tsunade will kill you if you give Shizune-chan a heart attack."

Minato shrugged. "She killed the office pet last week. She deserves a little hazing."

"Which one?"

"Fluffy, the goldfish—don't you remember? He was two years old."

"That translates to a millennia in fish years, kid. And what ever happened to Spot?"

"The chinchilla?" Minato looked over his shoulder as he peered inquisitively over Shizune's desk. "He… _escaped_," Minato commented eerily as he rerolled the scroll and tied the twine binding. "Kakashi and Rin swear that you can hear him at night."

"Maybe if our dear Kushina-chan let you have pets then maybe you wouldn't feel the need to pawn every stray or festival prize off on your innocent little Chuunin.

Minato tucked the scroll and a cluster of other papers under his armpit before heading towards the stairwell. "You honestly think Kushina will let me get a puppy?" There was undiluted, childlike hope in the Hokage's voice. He only had three evil babies at home for Kushina to contend with, what was one more…?

"No," Kakashi loomed at the top of the stairwell.

Jiraiya peeked over Minato's shoulder as they clambered the final ascent. "How'd you get in?"

"Aside from the front door always being open, I have my ways," Kakashi drawled and pushed off the wall as his sensei and the Sannin reached the top of the stairs. "Did you finish your latest work, Jiraiya-sama?"

"Ah, wouldn't _you _like to know? I am only the creator of the highest quality of modern literature this world has to offer."

Minato tossed looks between his boisterous sensei and his apathetic student. "Are you two talking about porn, again?" he asked innocently.

Kakashi blinked hurriedly while Jiraiya adamantly defended his masterpieces.

"Kakashi I expected more from you." Minato spun on his heel; conference room bound and said, "I am telling Rin."

"_Sensei—"_ Kakashi watched dismayed as his sensei departed down the halls.

Minato's blond head poked from around the corner. "Ah, unless you can conjure a summary for the clan patriarchs as to why we are at war with Suna while still portraying me in a decent light."

Jiraiya snickered. "Blackmail… I taught you well, kid."

Kakashi sighed, feeling defeat creep over him. _"When?"_

…

"—so concludes the official précis, as written by the Hokage," Kakashi finished in a monotone and set down the synopsis on the podium.

At the back of the room someone gave a very audible _cough._

The patriarchs lined the polished wooden table and each held their own copy of Kakashi's synopsis of the war effort and Konoha's reasoning. This was a ceremonial front, if anything, the clans were bound to the village in more ways than one and unless they wanted to be exiled they would have to give their consent and send their clansmen into battle.

Kakashi sighed at the long aching silence that weighed upon the room. This was awkward, his sensei should have been doing this but who was he to complain to? Jiraiya? The Sandaime? They all glorified Minato and overlooked his abuses on his students. Kakashi cradled his cheek in his palm and blinked his only visibly grey eye at the clan heads. It sucked when your sensei was the Hokage and it _really_ sucked when your sensei was the Hokage _and_ had stage fright.

"Where is the Hokage presently?" Hyuuga Hiashi asked the lanky teenager with pale hair and nearly three fourths of his face obscured.

"War briefing," Kakashi said dully. Without his ANBU mask he must have appeared pretty pathetic. "He must prepare before the Council convenes this noon. I am to accept any petitions you may have with..." Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose. _"…his awesomeness."_

In the back of the room, Jiraiya gave a _thumbs up_. Kakashi felt utterly mortified.

Kakashi _hated _blackmail.

The only consolation Kakashi received was that most of patriarchs were relatively young and had been schoolmates with his sensei, so they _must_ have been familiar with his antics. Kakashi prayed they were for his reputation's sake.

"I have a petition," Uchiha Fugaku, newly entitled Captain of Police and patriarch as well as new father to his second son. "I would like to see these newest 'citizens' of Konoha."

"As would we all," Hiashi seconded, earning a grunt from Akimichi Chouza and a firm nod from Yamanaka Inoichi.

Kakashi spied his friend, Sarutobi Asuma standing behind his elder brother. Asuma gave him a pitying look and then a shrug before his brother tuned in as well.

"Then please leave your signatures on this," Kakashi instructed as he passed around a the 'ceremonial clipboard'. "I will consult…" he sighed. "_His awesomeness_ once the war briefing is over and please abide by the village-wide mandate that no utterance of either Jinchuuriki nor of the Ichibi no Jinchuuriki's sister is to be… well, _uttered_."

The clipboard made its rounds and every clan signed off accordingly, one ridiculously swirly signature at a time.

"Any others?" Kakashi cast a blank look about the room.

"I have a just a general question," Hiashi spoke, arms folding into his haori sleeves. "One that you could answer Hatake."

Kakashi tossed a glance over to Jiraiya leaning against back wall. The Sannin nodded. "Proceed," Kakashi said, feeling like a pompous ass.

"Is there a specific reason as to why we are not allowed to speak of the situation at hand?"

"The civilians are easily perturbed by the idea of Jinchuuriki, rumors are bound spread, my sensei knows this _but _to limit hostility towards the twins ensures smooth assimilation into our culture and stability of the seal in the long run," Kakashi explained. He was going way beyond the call of duty by proctoring this meeting. He was about to retire from ANBU, he had no place here…among these _old people._ "The seal's health is heavily intertwined with the Jinchuuriki's mental state, hence why many of you were completely unaware of Kushina-danna until… recent events."

A ripple of murmurs coursed through the clansmen as patriarchs they were entitled to such information but it was still a tender bud to pick with gossip.

"Anything else?"

Akimichi Chouza raised his hand. "I was told there would be free coffee and doughnuts."

…

"…our manpower is thrice that of Suna's, our spies have determined that the obtainment of the Shukaku was a sort of last ditch effort to restore their military power," Shikaku's voice droned on as he incessantly crinkled his already wrinkled papers.

Minato's eyebrow _twitched._ "What about the last appeal? We sent another didn't we?"

"Their reply was quite clear when they sent back the headless messenger, Hokage-sama," Shikaku reminded. "This is a personal vendetta, not a war."

Minato slumped in his chair and prostrated himself across the papers. He had arranged them in perfect sequence to lay his head upon.

"Hokage-sama?"

Minato's eyes shot open. "Sorry, cold weather makes me sleepy."

"And having three children at home has nothing to do with it?"

Minato let out a very audible sigh. "Only two of them ever cry and Kagome sleeps through the night now."

"Wait until they're walking."

Minato shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "Gaara doesn't allow Kagome to walk. When she tries, his sand just yanks her back down. Kushina is already scheduling them in for a psychologist."

Shikaku let out a gruff chortle and the scars on his face twisted into a grin. "They're brother and sister, Minato. They will pick on each other."

Minato twiddled his thumbs and leant back precariously in his chair. "I don't know, Shikaku—I have a feeling its more than that." Minato stared at the ceiling. The twins were _odd._ More so, _Gaara_ was odd and Kagome was a happy baby, almost _too_ happy. Kushina swooned at every little giggle and gummed smile while Gaara watched on silently. Gaara did not like to be touched, he seemed fond of Kushina though, allowing the occasional coddle or peek-a-boo. Minato had a feeling it was because they were… well, both redheads. "Naruto is starting to become more aware and I caught Kagome gnawing on his hair the other day in the playpen—and you know Kagome likes someone when they eat their hair."

Shikaku shook his head. "Has she eaten your hair, Hokage-sama?"

"Gods no!" Minato almost fell back in his chair. "I'm only allowed to hold them when they are asleep…ever since _the incident."_

"You mean the time you collapsed from internal hemorrhaging while holding Naruto?"

"Kushina is convinced I did it on purpose." Minato shuddered, feeling ill at the very memory. "Every time one of them spits up now…_I gag_."

"At least you are able to be in the same room with them now, Hokage-sama."

"Yeah," Minato grinned sheepishly."I am getting better, but _only_ because my kids are ridiculously good looking—unlike yours Shikaku, how can you stand touching that thing?"

"Your kids are weird looking, Minato," Shikaku snapped back. Shikamaru was still a baby. _All_ babies had squished faces… _didn't they?_ "Kagome is the only normal looking one. Gaara is a ginger and Naruto is a towhead."

"That's 'Hokage-sama' to you, baby basher."

"Oh shut up, I've known you since I was six," Shikaku conceded to the lapse of formality and the façade quickly deteriorated as he seated himself on Minato's desk and leveled him with a stare. "Minato we need to talk."

Minato tossed a glance over his shoulder. The bleak winter sky and the mud and sleet filled street looking very appealing at this moment. "Pray tell," he smiled his award winning…well, _smile._

Minato just forgot that whenever he did this, Shikaku rebuffed with a frown. "What's going to happen to the twins?"

Minato raised a brow. "I thought by declaring international war, I made my intent for them pretty clear."

"No, I mean you personally," Shikaku seemed to grimace at his next words. "You and Kushina haven't filed adoption papers. You can't play house for now and then ditch them later when they actually start to cause problems." The twins being _odd_ were an understatement. Shikaku had glimpsed them during a play date when Kushina had toddled in with them, one on each hip and Naruto strapped to her chest. The dark eyed and ever smiling Kagome had poked Shikamaru's nose and had proceeded to gum him mercilessly while stoic Gaara had watched eerily. Kushina fed Naruto as the infants rolled on the carpet and Yoshino poured tea. Not a moment later, a pitched wail had sent Shikaku running from his office and over to a frantic Yoshino who was coddling a screeching Shikamaru. Kushina had remained stupefied.

His son's face had been slashed.

Kushina had disappeared with the twins and her son in tow, but not without Kagome's violent protests as her chubby arms outstretched to Shikamaru as if to remedy his wound.

"Has anything strange happened lately— you know on the home front?"

"Aside from my wife's demon being unleashed unto my village and being resealed into my only son," Minato gave a heartfelt chuckle. "—nope, nothing out of the ordinary."

"Minato, I'm serious, has Naruto or Kushina been injured mysteriously or have the twins been doing anything… you know—_weird?"_

"Well, there was that time I awoke to Gaara crawling on the ceiling hissing at me and Kagome pointing at me and chanting in some unrecognizable language…" Minato stroked his chin. "I'm just kidding, Shikaku and no, the twins are very accustomed to Naruto and Kushina. You must remember, Gaara is a Jinchuuriki and Kagome is the reverse. Gaara destroys. Kagome heals. It's as simple as that." Why was everyone so surprised when Gaara had a little violent outburst? Kagome would always be there to repair the damage, if not stop it altogether.

Shikaku grit his teeth. That was not reassuring at all. "And what about custody?"

"Kushina and I have agreed that the twins do not see us as their parents," Minato admitted begrudgingly. "They will live on their own when the time comes." Both the council and he agreed having two Jinchuuriki in one village was dangerous enough, let alone the same household.

Shikaku blinked, stunned. "Kushina is alright with that?"

_Well, no,_ Minato immediately thought, recalling the rather violent tirade she had over his refusal to sign the adoption papers. "It is for the best, in the long run they would discover their true parentage and history. To legally bind them to me would cause resentment for they would be forever bound to Konoha and would leave them to be prime targets for my enemies to exploit. Plus… I do not see them as my children. Kushina does," Minato said simply. Maybe it was a bit harsh, but Kagome was not his daughter and Gaara was not his son. They were the Kazekage's and something nagged on him that he could not adopt children that already had parents. "Just as well, I believe the twins are more aware of the situation then most believe. Kagome knows I am not her father and Gaara regards me as if I have kunai instead of a bottle."

Shikaku pushed off the Hokage's desk. "In a way I understand, it just seems pointless to throw your country into war unless for the sake of your own children."

Minato slammed a palm on his desk. "See, that is everyone's problem—they try to categorize my relationship with the twins. I am not their father, I never will be."

Shikaku's face slacked. The Hokage, _the _easy going goofball Namikaze Minato has just _yelled _at him.

The door at the back end of the roomed peeked open and Hatake Kakashi poked his masked face in. "Sensei."

Minato let out a breath. "What?"

Kakashi paused at his sensei's tone. "The clans have been dismissed."

"Good," Minato slumped in his chair and beckoned in his student. Kakashi slipped in. "We were just finishing up." Minato tossed an icy look to Shikaku.

"I guess we were," Shikaku responded gruffly and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

Kakashi sidled alongside the Nara and sheepishly handed him a paper.

"What's this?"

"A summary of the war effort, every clan head got one," Kakashi said as Shikaku perused the document absently.

Shikaku promptly crumpled it and tossed at Minato's head. The paper ball bounced off his tuft of yellow hair and the door slammed with Shikaku's exit.

"Sensei…" Kakashi sighed.

"It was his fault," Minato defended as he shuffled some papers to look 'official'. "Any petitions?" Minato eyed the clipboard tucked under Kakashi's armpit. "I take that as a 'yes'."

"A problem, sensei," Kakashi handed his sensei the signature document. "They want to see the twins, all of them do." This was bound to compromise the twins' security.

Minato looked at the clipboard, deciphered the political jargon and let out a short '_hah'._

"What is so funny?" Kakashi had a bad feeling about this.

"This is nothing to worry about," Minato stood, crumpled the paper and let the clipboard clamber to his desk. "Where is Jiraiya-sensei?" Minato was already dashing out the door.

Kakashi broke into a light jog. "He is already with the council—sensei can you elaborate? The clans encompass nearly one third of Konoha's population, if they do not approve of the twins—"

Minato paused at the top of the stairwell and whirled on his heel. "Kakashi, Kakashi…" He clapped a hand on his student's shoulder. Since when was Kakashi so rigid? "This is just their wives' ploy of getting an invite for their kids to the twins' birthday party."

"But… but it may breach national security."

"That's what I said and then Kushina rented a cotton candy machine."

Kakashi blinked. "…I don't follow."

"I _love_ cotton candy, _duh._"

…

The first conscious thought that Kagome ever had was…!

"Kagome-chan! That is…not sanitary!"

—that her brother's boogers tasted _good._

Kushina swooped down into the playpen and picked Kagome up by the scruff of her onesie. "Kagome-chan, hands out!"

"_Baaah,"_ Kagome cooed and wiggled her fingers while the pretty redhead lady wiped her hands clean. She was set back down with her brother and Gaara blinked at her. She crawled over to him and was immediately embraced with the familiar feeling of sand. Kagome giggled happily and proceeded to chew on her brother's hair as a reward.

Kushina shook her head and dragged the twins' playpen into the living room. Naruto was splayed on his belly, wedged between pillows so as to not fall off the futon. With a leaking bottle halfway latched onto Naruto slept. Kushina plopped herself down on the carpet, eyes mindful of each infant's doings and proceeded to lick her one hundred and third envelope of the afternoon.

She really hoped envelope glue was not poisonous.

If she died would the other two hundred and ninety seven people even care to come to her funeral because they _did not_ get invitation to the twins' birthday party?

Kushina huffed. No one appreciated her!

The front door opened. Minato trudged in with his usual bright, near fanatical charisma severely dimmed. "Tadaima…" he said pathetically and began to shimmy out of his muddy boots.

"Aren't you gonna say 'hi' to your children?" Kushina snapped and licked her one hundred and forth envelope.

Minato stiffened as he hung his cloak and periwinkle scarf on the coat rack. "Kushina, you have stop that."

"Stop what?" she asked innocently, recoiling for the attack!

"You know what," Minato drawled, not one to be baited so easily.

They only had_ one_ child. Kushina needed to keep that in mind.

Kushina settled into a dark brooding after that. "How'd you're meetings go?"

"_Long,"_ Minato announced as he slipped into the kitchen and Kushina heard the fridge open.

"Use a glass," she called.

A pause, and then an opened cupboard reached her ears as she heard Minato begrudgingly use glassware for his daily dosage. The man was like a cat, or better yet a newborn baby with the dairy. "Kushina…" A glass was put down. "We need more milk."

"Surprise, surprise," she grumbled. "You're getting it, I've been taking care of three babies all day while planning this birthday party."

Minato's blond head poked in around the corner. "And I've been dealing with an international crisis."

"Well… that does sound _almost_ as bad," Kushina tilted her head. "Call up someone, then. You're the Hokage make it a mission or something, oh and be sure to write it off so the village can pay for it."

Minato blanched. "This is why you're not Hokage."

Kushina smiled. "While you're out be sure to deliver these." She gestured to the mountainous stack of invites. "I'll have the rest finished by morning."

"Why can't you _mail _them? Normal people do that."

"Because then I would have to pay for postage!"

Uzumaki Kushina was _cheap._

It wasn't until three hours later, when the Great Yellow flash had spent more time _talking_ to the elated invitees than delivering them did he return home with lukewarm milk in hand and three babies in his bed.

"Another night on the couch, it seems," Minato conceded and turned off the television. The grainy light fizzled out and the four huddled forms were motionless in the darkness. Minato crept out of the bedroom, shelved the milk and flopped against the sofa with a relieved sigh.

"Baaah!"

Minato near jumped out of his skin and off of the sofa at the horrific sound.

Kagome blinked, her dark eyes shimmering from the shaft of city light streaming in from the window.

"Yeah, okay." Minato scooted, picked up Kagome by the scruff of her onesie and expectantly awaited as the little one year old snuggled herself in against his ribs. "This is _not_ going to keep on continuing, stinky. You drool on me _every time_."

Kagome was already asleep.

He did not know it at the time, but he could not have been happier.

Minato nodded off but not before spotting a little figure standing watchful in the hallway. "Gaara… at least _pretend_ not be so creepy," he muttered before letting sleep pull him under altogether.

Okay, maybe he could have been a _little _happier.

…

This was worse than their wedding.

Minato glanced about the rented out pavilion that Kushina had heated and stocked to the hilt with balloons. Winter was an afterthought as the snow was melted and the residual mud was covered with synthetic turf.

A petting zoo (more for Minato than anyone else) was stashed to far end, complete with guinea pigs and pony rides. Face painting galore sidled alongside a mob of clowns and a jumpy gym was currently being inflated. And of course the cotton candy machine along with other confections was being set up as well.

_They can barely walk, let alone ride a pony. _

Minato thought as he nailed in the picket sign.

"Minato, what on earth is that?" Kushina demanded with Naruto on her hip and Kagome and Gaara holding onto her skirt like a lifeline. Gaara was a tad petrified of the goats which meant Kagome was petrified of goats. Minato could not blame them. "'Baby Free Zone'?" Kushina read the sign's plastered red lettering. "You've got to be kidding me."

Minato shrugged. "I don't want other people's freaky kids near me." Minato shivered at the thought of a hundred sticky little fingers reaching out for him. "Kagome is allowed… and maybe Itachi-kun…" Naruto still had a spit up issue and Gaara kind of… _always wanted to strangle him_.

"_Baaah!"_ Kagome exclaimed, jumping up and down with pigtails bouncing. She was wearing a pastel yellow parka and although it was cold, it seemed a little ridiculous.

Gaara seemed to glare at him as he was wearing a matching parka, although it was mint green. Naruto burped, he looked like a stuffed orange starfish.

Kushina hung her son over her shoulder and gave solid pats to his back. "I can't believe you, I invited everyone's children because I thought you were over this!"

"I am…" Minato gestured to the little sign. "Just at a safe distance. Besides this is where all the men can do _men_ things. "

"Oh, no! Jiraiya is not—"

"Kushina, this is a children's birthday party not going to going to do _that _again," Minato assured his wife as he began to construct a fence out of some extra chicken wire the petting zoo _donated_.

"Minato," Kushina sighed. "What are you doing?"

"Securing the perimeter, what else does it look like, Kushina?" Minato asked owlishly. "Look," he leaned over the fence and grabbed a cup of punch. "I can access sustenance without ever having to leave my base!" In military hindsight this was an invaluable sight of operation. "Now I just need cotton candy…"

Kushina looked down. "Kagome go in with Minato."

Kagome looked up, smiled and toddled towards Minato. _"Baaah!"_

Gaara gave a frantic looks between Kushina and his departing sister.

"One is my limit, Kushina," Minato said with shrug as Kagome pulled on his coattails. "Watch the drool, stinky or you're going in with the goats." Kagome whimpered in response.

"Gaara c'mon, I'll show you the clowns—they have red hair like us!" Kushina bent down and gathered the boy up on her other hip and disappeared into the crowd of workmen and caterers.

Minato sipped punch and Kagome had some as well, turning her parka pink instead of yellow and Minato showed her how the paper cup could be a hat. People eventually filtered in, some extremely early and most on time, right on the dot. Minato kept count by watching the mounting stack of gifts to the far end of the pavilion.

"Sensei?"

Minato and Kagome looked up, both were occupied with their three tiered castle of cups to notice Kakashi's approach. "Stinky, is Kakashi allowed in?"

"Baaah!" Kagome's response was to tackle Kakashi's leg and _maw_ it.

Kakashi detached the toddler by picking her up by the hood of her park and bringing her to eyelevel. "Biting. Bad," he said flatly and flicked her nose.

Kagome erupted in a cacophony of wails.

Minato was absolutely _horrified_.

He snatched her away from his inhumane student. "— she is not a dog Kakashi," Minato huffed and then proceeded to flick Kakashi's nose. "Flicking babies. _Bad."_

Kagome started giggling and soon her sounds melted into hiccups.

Kakashi blinked. "First recon was deployed to Suna this morning."

Minato set Kagome down. _Damn,_ his hands were sticky, _again_. "I know, Kakashi. I ordered it."

"Rin was assigned to that group."

Minato paused. "Quiet down, stinky," he murmured as Kagome's hiccupping baby talk had become a bit too raucous for such serious discussion. "You're angry, Kakashi. I can see that."

Kakashi's only visibly grey flicked down to the toddler, who wilted under his gaze. Kagome whimpered. "Yes," he gritted out and there was a deep well of anger behind those words. "You sent Rin to the frontlines for _this—_" He shot a sharp motion with his hands to the fettered pavilion around them filled to the hilt with festivities. "If she dies for some mollycoddled brat—"

"I think you should go home," a disembodied voice followed by a scarred hand clapped onto Kakashi's shoulder.

Minato watched as his student shrugged it off and disappeared into the growing crowds. "Fugaku?" Minato looked over to the Uchiha patriarch with a squirming infant strapped to his front. "Thanks, I guess." He looked down to a cowering Kagome, knelt down and poked her cheek. "Stop it, stinky or you'll make me cry too."

"She has an excellent sense about people, your student looked awfully upset," Fugaku commented and watched the dark eyed child slowly bloom with a smile. "Almost enough to start a fight with a one year old."

Minato stood and Kagome did her favorite thing by running circles around his legs and swinging from his coattails. "Kakashi is just protective of Rin. After losing Obito he hasn't been the same."

"Yes, I believe none of us are," Fugaku commented darkly. It was a rather sore subject that his clan's Bloodline Limit slipped out of their grasp. His gaze then traveled to the picketed sign and then cast a dry look over to the squealing toddler at his Hokage's heels. "'No Babies', huh?"

Minato laughed nervously. "Heh, you can come in… but little Sasuke-kun there has to remain restrained."

Fugaku took a step into the Baby Free Zone and rocked on his heels. "It doesn't matter, Sasuke can't walk yet."

Minato raised a brow. Was that disappointment in his voice? His kid was like five, six months old? "How old was Itachi when he could—"

"He was swimming by this time," Fugaku commented gruffly, eyes trained on the punch bowl.

"Oh," Minato shuffled awkwardly. "Want some punch?"

"No," Fugaku pulled out a flask and took a swig. "Want some gin?"

"Um," Minato looked frantically around. He was regretting doing this prior 'men stuff' as well as Fugaku's invitation. "I'll pass." He never had a drink in his life. "So, where is Itachi-kun?"

Fugaku shrugged. "Itachi is sort of afraid of clowns."

Minato blinked. "I'm sorry—_what?"_

"Last time we went to a birthday like this—he nearly killed one, kunai strait for the jugular…" Fugaku smirked. "Kid's a natural."

"You are supposed to go for the carotid," Minato muttered as Kagome was jumping around their feet. "Wait, what was your six year old doing with a kunai?"

Fugaku shrugged. "If you want to bleed him out slowly and get information you slit a vein…" Fugaku rebutted and took another swig. "Anyways, _instead leaping out a window_…" he gave a very pointed stare at Minato. "—he naturally seeks to eliminate a threat."

Minato gave the squirming Sasuke a very pointed look as well. "What can I say—I have catlike reflexes."

Fugaku gave him a very dry look. "Send your student to the frontlines, Namikaze. He'll be of more use to the war effort protecting that little medic-nin than by moping around the village."

"I need Kakashi here, no ANBU will be deployed, _yet_," Minato's eyes darted down to the ground. Kagome had learned to untie his boots. "And yes, you have no say in my mandate, Fugaku."

Fugaku smirked against the lip of his flask. "I never liked you, Namikaze but you're a good leader— even I can admit that."

Minato laid a palm over his chest. "Why Fugaku, I'm touched."

"Good, because Mikoto is coming this way and I told her you and I were on good terms," Fugaku's flask disappeared and he gently patted a sleeping Sasuke.

Minato watched as the crowds sifted and Uchiha Mikoto materialized just a scant few meters away. Her lovely face was smiling right at _him_. She wore a seamless blue shift and balanced a rather impressive large box on her hip with a frilly bow plopped on top. Itachi was at her thighs and was wearing a very gloomy outfit for a six year old. "Why on earth would you tell her that?" Minato waved.

Mikoto took her chance and scuttled towards them.

"Because she has it stuck in her head that one of our sons will marry your daughter."

"Stinky?" Minato looked down frantically to Kagome who was 'singing' and then to rapidly approaching matriarch and heir.

"_Nah! Nah! Naaah! Nah!"_

He looked over to Fugaku, whose eyes said, 'sorry' and immediately knew what had just happened.

Minato had been cornered.

"Minato!" Mikoto wrapped an arm around his neck and kissed his cheek. "And little Kagome-chan," she greeted and knelt down to the girl, setting the colorful box just _in front_ of the _grabby_ one year old.

"Woah there, stinky," he reprimanded a reaching Kagome as she had a tendency to put everything she liked into her mouth. This included colorful ribbons and gift wrap that were _most definitely_ poisonous. "There's a gift table over there, Mikoto."

"Oh, well a little present for Kagome-chan won't hurt anyone." Mikoto stood and Itachi quirked his head at the picketed sign. He did not enter. _"Itachi, get in here."_

Itachi pointed at the sign and Mikoto poked her head over the chicken wire fence.

Fugaku sighed. "Itachi you're not a baby, are you?"

"No, tou-san," Itachi shook his head. "But Shisui said I was… I am having an 'identity crisis'," the prodigy seemed to quote.

Fugaku pinched the bridge of his nose. That was the last time he gave Itachi any Pyschology books. Last time he was convinced Sasuke had an Oedipus complex because he was breastfeeding. "Shisui is an idiot. Get in here."

Minato's eyebrows shot up. "He can read?"

"He's six," Fugaku drawled, as if it _explained everything._

Minato counted his fingers. He had been four. _I guess it does._

"Of course he can!" Mikoto beamed and dragged her son in Baby Free Zone. "He can do arithmetic all the way up to academy graduation age and he's starting this fall."

"Private tutors," Fugaku grumbled. "Expensive as sh—"

"Anything for our children's benefit!" Mikoto cut him off. "Isn't that right, Minato?"

"I guess, Kushina and I haven't really thought about all of that yet what with the war and all…"Minato shifted uncomfortably and scooped up Kagome who was just about to ingest tinsel. "Kagome can say Gaara's name though, watch—" Minato pinched Kagome's fat cheek so she could face him. "Hey, stinkers, who's your brother?"

"Gaaaaaaah!" Kagome took a deep breath. "Raaaaah!"

Minato grinned. He could not have been prouder. "See? She'll be reading in no time."

Each respective Uchiha blinked.

Mikoto giggled a bit too enthusiastically. "Oh that was darling," she crooned and patted Kagome's little pigtails. "Now, that deserves an early birthday present—"

"I should get her brother—" Kushina would kill him if Kagome opened a birthday present without a camera, let alone her twin brother.

"No need, this one is _especially_ for Kagome-chan," Mikoto hummed and pushed Itachi forward. "Itachi picked it out, didn't you, Itachi?"

The six year old blinked at the Yondaime. "Hai." He wrapped his arms around the box and awkwardly walked towards Minato and the outstretching one year old in his hold.

Minato set Kagome down gently and held her back by the hood of her park. She ran in place. _"Baaah!"_

Itachi walked around the box and approached the little girl. "Happy Birthday," the child prodigy said blankly.

Kagome stilled completely and her large dark eyes blinked inquisitively at the boy who was nearly twice her size.

"Kagome-chan, why don't you give Itachi a hug?" Mikoto goaded, nudging her son forward.

Kagome's eyelashes fluttered for a moment before she swiped Itachi's hand and _pulled. _"Dah! Dah!" She pointed in some arbitrary direction until the prodigy conceded and let her lead on.

Minato immediately reached out—

"Let them be, Minato. Itachi will watch after her."

Minato swallowed hard, realizing with horror that they were already _gone._

Kushina was going to _**kill **_him.

"Is he vaccinated, at least?"

…

"Oi, Minato, its cake time," Jiraiya announced to the tight little knot of men in the Baby Free Zone. Minato was doing a repeat of his academy days where he would isolate himself only to draw more people to him. The Baby Free Zone had turned into the 'popular kids table' and you were only admitted entrance if you had your kid was restrained or vaccinated, preferably both or simply no tot at all.

All heads poked up at the word _cake_.

"Oh, good," Minato strode off and his entourage followed. "Can you hold this?" He plopped an enormously heavy box into his sensei's grip.

Jiraiya fumbled, what was in this? A set of bowling balls? "Where's stinkers?"

"Kagome is…with Itachi-kun," Minato explained.

Jiraiya sneezed as ribbon tickled his nose. "Well you better get her back quick before she's married off or worse, _she doesn't blow out her candles_."

"Excellent point," Minato looked around frantically. "Oi, Shikaku—"

The Jounin Commander paused, sent a yearning look across and to the three tiered chocolate cake at the epicenter of the pavilion. "Yes?"

"I'm still mad at you— so go and find Kagome, or I will charge you with treason or something," Minato scrunched his eyebrows together in a very 'intimidating' way. Shikaku let out a growling sound in the back of his throat as he beckoned Inoichi and Chouza to saunter back into the crowds with him.

"Minato."

Minato yipped at the sight of his wife. "Kushina—_what_ is on your face?" His wife looked like a psychopath.

"Face painting, look—" She gestured to each infant on her hip. "Naruto is a cat and Gaara is a clown."

Gaara did not look amused, despite the painted red smile. Naruto looked dead.

"And what are you?" Minato shuddered at the orange blotches spattered across his wife's beautiful complexion.

"An orangutan, duh." Kushina then proceeded to do an imitation which was awkward enough without having to hold two babies.

"Are you drunk?" Jiraiya wrapped his free arm around Kushina and patted his comatose godson on the head. "Because I know… I'm about to be."

"Jiraiya if I so much as take a single whiff of alcohol at this birthday party, I will personally castrate you."

"Tsunade would like that."

Minato shuffled awkwardly. Nearly half of the men here had brought some sort of 'contraband' and he was most definitely sure that the punch bowl was no longer 'kid friendly'. At least that is what Minato had gathered from the way Fugaku and Shikaku had been loitering near it for the past hour.

"Jiraiya what is that obnoxious thing?" Kushina wrinkled her nose and Gaara eyed the present with a suspicious eye.

Minato jutted in. "Mikoto and Fugaku's—I mean Itachi's gift to Kagome."

"What about Gaara?" Kushina looked down to the older twin, who probed the box with a thin thread of sand. Kushina gently tapped his wrist. "Not in public, little one." She looked up to Minato. "We had a bit of a scare earlier, a goat escaped the petting zoo. They haven't found it since."

"_Escaped?" _Minato looked around. "How can you lose a goat?"

Kushina shrugged. "No matter, we have to get the twins over to cake, everyone is about to sing…" Kushina trailed off as her eyes found her husband's coattails empty. "Minato, where is Kagome?"

"Oh, I don't really know..."

"You don't know?" Kushina echoed. "How can you lose a baby?"

Jiraiya swore he was getting déjà vu.

"I did not lose her; she is simply is with Itachi-kun." Minato grinned. When Kushina's face crumpled into a foul expression (furthered by the face paint) he pointed to the tipsy Uchiha by the spiked punch bowl. "Fugaku said it was okay!"

Kushina looked murderously in Fugaku's direction. Gaara was stiff in her grasp.

Far off, Minato heard a commotion and watched as a tight throng of people (definitely a fire hazard) rippled with anxious movements. A woman fainted, children started to cry and a few youths dove into the heart of it all.

"What on earth is going on over there?" Kushina wondered aloud.

Minato did not know it but this had the makings of being a disaster.

…

The girl was _strange._

Uchiha Itachi rested his chin on his knees and studied the little one year old. She wanted to eat his hair, of that he was certain but she just as easily restrained with a Shadow Clone. She eventually stilled and resumed an eerie ogle.

She had dark eyes.

"You look nothing like your brother," Itachi stated. Another few minutes and his mother would be satisfied with this interaction. "And where is your chakra?"

Kagome blinked. _"Baaah!"_

Itachi's spine straightened. He had had enough. "Take her back," he ordered the clone.

The mirror image of himself, ducked out of from beneath the table and into the crowds. Itachi watched as his clone sifted between the people. Did he really look that small? No wonder Shisui always called him a shrimp.

Not a second later Itachi heard a distinct wail and saw a puff of smoke that accompanied the pull of chakra of a dissipated clone. He was already darting towards the sound.

His mom was going to _**kill **_him.

The crowds pressed together, Itachi slid under knees and clambered over chairs to reach her. Then the knot of people loosened to a brief break. Kagome was screaming her head off as she sat on the ground. The crowd remained unaware as most people startled at the rampaging…

Goat.

There was a _goat_ about to _sighed._

"_Get it!" _

A woman shrieked, people pushed and shoved while some began to chase the thing. The animal became cornered, the crowd encroached on the goat and the defenseless, unseen toddler rooted at the mercy of the mob's feet.

Itachi dove—

"_Kill it!"_

The mob did as well.

He coiled his body around the smaller one and rolled with Kagome tightly clung to his chest.

Itachi felt his heard a muted crunch as someone stumbled over him. A heel wedged itself between his ribs and pressed down. Itachi did not let go.

Kagome _screamed. _

That was the moment a huge wall of sand descended upon _all of them._

…

Minato did not quite know exactly what had happened; all he did know was that—

Gaara _exploded._

And the pavilion was filled like a sandbox. Minato's blond head popped out of a dune and he coughed up a mouthful of grains. He glanced about, spied people windblown like frail autumn leaves and a desiccated bouncy room. "Kushina!" Minato called. He was stuck. People were gathering themselves up, brushing off and patting down their little ones.

Gaara stood in the center of the destruction, _alone._

Well, not quite because before the little redhead's feet was a trampled Itachi and an unconscious Kagome in his grip.

Gaara held out a hand expectantly, palm splayed as if awaiting some form of payment.

Itachi remained motionless for a moment on the dunes, and then he did a wincing motion as he strained to get up. Kagome did not stir.

Itachi's eyes looked up, glazed from the pain of a punctured lung; all he saw was an _evil clown. _

Itachi reacted instinctively and struck out, hand blossoming with a flurry of flames from a Katon.

A protective wall materialized before Gaara's front and then spindled into a spear-like shape that lashed out against Itachi's cheek. The skin burst open and a red crescent splashed across. Gaara flicked his wrist and _a hand_ of sand rose up and picked up the limp prodigy.

Gaara's cold cyan eyes and small body all spoke for him. _Let go._

Itachi just clung tighter.

Gaara shook him _hard._ Kagome whimpered.

"Gaara!" Minato called and flickered by the Jinchuuriki in a rash influx of chakra. He made a grab for the boy only to be repelled by a shaft of sand. His palm began to bleed profusely.

Minato watched in fascination as red rivulets swelled and trickled down to the sand laden earth.

It completely absorbed his blood.

A shudder raced over the Jinchuuriki's small body. Gaara's pupils dilated.

Kagome's dark eyes snapped open. "Gaaaraaah," she cooed.

Gaara ceased his violent shaking. The _hand _disintegrated, dropping Itachi and letting Kagome wiggle free. In a single moment, the female twin appeared agile as she leapt to her brother and tackled him. Grain by grain, the sand dissolved into the air, _into nothingness_…

A procession of unintelligible babbles racketed forth from Kagome's frantic baby talk. Minato was transfixed with the exchange but on his peripheral he watched as people circled, gawked and _whispered._

Itachi had saved Kagome's life. Gaara had reacted to his sister's cry for help. _Both_ were most definitely lifelong enemies.

Kagome was trying to _control_ her brother but it was _too late._

Minato could only toss an apologetic look to Kushina as she frantically cradled their son. _She knew. Naruto would be next._

People would only see Gaara as a demon now and Kagome as the demon's thrall.

Eventually, suspicion would turn to resentment, resentment to hatred and the villagers would turn on them.

It was only a matter of time…

But Kagome would never falter from her brother's side.

…

Resentments festered, the twins grew and war raged on. A year passed, Rin died and Kakashi rejoined the ANBU ranks. Another year, the twins turned three and Tsunade lost her lover. She disappeared into the wilderness and Jiraiya grew solemn. Suna was overcome with a great depression as trade became stagnant and a famine ravaged their dwindling resources. Konoha flourished and people spat in the name of the twins' homeland. Like a wretched beast, Suna persisted and Minato could not bring himself to give the final blow.

Suna was a rotted shell of its former self and it was not until the twins' fourth birthday did Minato receive correspondence that the Kazekage, Gaara and Kagome's father, was dead.

His own personal ANBU guard had slit his throat and had sent the bloodied kunai as a token of surrender to Minato.

But resentment is an old wound and memory an acrid salt.

Suna withdrew and grew strong once more and awaited the day they could reclaim their lost children.

_Suna remembers_, Minato thought as he watched a bloodied sunset.

As did Gaara and Kagome.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Enter: Uchiha Itachi, among others. AKA Arch nemesis of Gaara and BFF of Kagome:P ...Naruto's role is quite predictable as for Sasuke... well, lets just say this story just doesn't have him have a crush on Kagome for no reason. Wrongly worded, Sasuke will _not_ like Kagome, much to Itachi's chagrin. Reviews reflect the update speed:) Just as well, you will have my eternal love! ~KK

Update Schedule

75+ Reviews = Continued (Quickly)

45+ Reviews = Continued

45 or less = Hiatus

35 or less = Discontinued and Deleted


	4. This Bloodied Flower Blossoms

**Author's Note:** I seriously am loving this story more and more. Which means it's getting much longer and much more intricate than I ever expected… ~KK

**Beta'd:** HalfBlackWolfDemon (I added a couple of scenes, so you have something to look forward to:3)

* * *

><p>Byblis<p>

* * *

><p>I<br>I can't promise you that I won't let you down  
>And I<br>I can't promise you that I will be the only one around  
>When your hope falls down<br>But we're young  
>Open flowers in the windy fields of this war-torn world<br>And love  
>This city breathes the plague of loving things more than their creators<p>

—_Hold On To What You Believe_

* * *

><p>The twins started up at the Academy tomorrow. And like a great deal of horrible things that caused the Yondaime Hokage anxiety—<p>

"Did you fill out their registration, yet?"

He ignored its very existence.

"—what?" Minato blinked up from his oatmeal and to the striking redhead across their cluttered, pockmarked and _sticky_ kitchen table.

The daily paper crumpled in Kushina's grasp. "The twins' registration, Minato. Please don't tell me—"

"I'll have Shizune run it over this afternoon. They can still attend the entrance ceremony."

Kushina immediately became crestfallen. "But that's special treatment and that's exactly what we don't want, Minato—_to single them out_."

Minato blew onto his bland spoonful of mush. _"Uhm." _Minato gulped. "What about Naruto? He can still startup with Kagome and Gaara."

Kushina shook her head fervently and a stray ruby strand of hair drifted into the sunlight. "You know as well as I do, Minato, that Naruto… is a bit _slow_."

A tight knot knitted itself between Minato's eyes. "Well, he'll stay that way if you keep coddling him, Kushina."

Kushina slammed the kitchen table. "I won't throw my son to the wolves, Minato!"

Minato sighed and continued to spoon his breakfast. "Right, right…" He mulled deep into the porridge-filled depths of his soul. "What about Gaara? He's slow too." Kid could barely throw a rock, let alone, a shuriken.

"Well," Kushina started with crossed arms and puffing up like a bloated fish. "You know as well as I do we can't just send_ one_."

Minato nodded with a conceding incline of the neck. "Then we should keep them _both _out. The tutors have been good enough… what's another year?" Aside from eating up his checkbook. Honestly, he was the Hokage and he was eating _porridge_ instead of _fruit loops_ because he could barely pay for his kids' private tutoring.

"Kagome-chan is too _restless_. The exercises are too simple for her already and in another year she'll be clawing her own eyes out in boredom."

Minato cradled his cheek dejectedly and looked suspiciously at his wife. "You sound like Mikoto's little parrot."

The redhead shrunk in her chair, dicey green eyes darting about. "Well, she said the same thing about her boys and Itachi was promoted to Chuunin last year and…and I just thought it would be good…to start the twins off before things get to out of hand."

A blond brow shot up. "Out of hand?"

Kushina leveled her husband with a flat look. "Don't be coy. Last week I found a dead cat— _a dead cat!_ –in Kagome's toy chest."

A brief recollection of desiccated flesh, skeletal ribs and gaping mandibles with very _tiny_ fangs flashed across Minato's mindset. "Oh, that? She mummified it with a salve Orochimaru gave her. Really, it's not as demented as you think."

"She's five, Minato," Kushina drawled and scooped up her bowl to plop **(it)** into the sink. With a cranked faucet and clatter of dishware she said, "And what about a few months ago? With the painting?"

"Ancient summoning contract," Minato sufficed lightly. "Itachi-kun thought she might've been actually compatible."

"She used her own blood! And then Gaara had a near mental breakdown."

"Nothing a band aid and tranquilizers could not fix," Minato quipped with his typical charismatic smirk but his bright expression dimmed at Kushina's sudden onslaught of silence. Her back was turned to him and he could see the tension threaded in her shoulders and the anxiety in her trembling and reddened hands. "What is this really about?"

Kushina paused and gripped the lip of the sink with conviction. She would tell him. She _had_ to tell him. "Once they join the Academy, Minato…" She looked over her shoulder and saw her kind, always _giving more than he had _husband_. _"I want them out." Her ripe green eyes shimmered with unshed tears, but one stubborn droplet slipped past and down her cheek. Minato's eyes fixated on the trembling rivulet on his wife's chin before it fell and splattered onto the floor.

It made no sound and Kushina did not cry.

"_Out?"_ Minato breathed and felt his chest concave. "You mean…" He knew what it meant but the words were so foreign coming out of his maternal, _I am mother-bear hear me roar _wife. _"Why?" _

"People… _stare_, Minato. They whisper. They _know_ what Naruto and Gaara are. The children may not, but the adults do and the children pick up on that. Life is already going to be hard enough for Naruto. And he just… is _always _around Kagome-chan and Gaara-kun—He has no time to make other friends. He doesn't _want _to."

"Perhaps, he doesn't need to, Kushina," Minato said in such a calm voice, it was sobering. A moment passed, tension swelled and burst. "Is this even about Naruto? It has nothing to do with Kagome's attitude towards you? Because you said _that_ didn't bother you."

Kushina's face flushed and she became almost lunatic in appearance. "Now that's not fair. Don't even go there, Minato. This is hard on me too!"

Minato shook his head. "You said it didn't bother you that Kagome never saw you as her mother… But apparently it does. It seems your favor only lasts so long."

Gaara had always tended to favor Kushina but regarded Minato with a wariness that a stray did to a feeding hand. However, Kagome was downright possessive of her twin and outright denounced any familial relation to Kushina and rejected any of her affections. Minato could not fault the girl but there was distance permanently placed between his wife and the twins. Kushina reveled in coddling and Kagome almost never expected praise or affection unless it was earned.

Which Kagome strived to earn on a daily basis from Minato and others. In Kagome's ideal world, she was Gaara's sole companion and everyone else was simply in the background.

It was a shame, really, for Gaara had actually shown some promise in opening up when he and Kushina interacted. Now, he was Kagome's ever present shadow and the two inverted on themselves, letting so very few in and causing the rest of the world to label them as _strange_.

Kagome was supposed to be the daughter Kushina never had, but… "Kagome is only doing what she feels is best," Minato explained. To which, Kushina _claimed_ never bothered her. "The less attached she is to you, the easier it is to let go." Minato was discovering old resentments die hard.

"It's not only that, Minato. Be fair," Kushina pleaded. "You know, more than anyone else, that Suna is rising again and it is only a matter of time before they starting making claims. I don't want our family involved any further with this political fallout."

Minato's jaw locked and a hard, pressured moment slipped by. "Fine," he said simply. "They move out tomorrow."

Kushina's entire frame caved and she slunk onto the counter. Grateful eyes, bright as antifreeze stared at her husband, the Hokage, but dimmed when she saw him walking away. "Minato," she called. "Do you resent me for this?"

He paused, but did not look back. "No, I just am relieved I never let you talk me into signing those adoption papers. _I would be_, if I knew back then how easily you could abandon something." And then he left her in the next second, stepping into sunlight and vanishing with it.

Kushina felt her back slide down the cupboards as she sat down on the cold tile. She brought her knees to her chest, pondering the irony of it all. For it was she who had wanted and protected the twins more fervently than anyone else and it was Minato who had detested them. And now, the tables were turned and she was putting them out with Minato being the most distraught.

She had said it was for Naruto's sake, but Kushina knew her husband well and if it was painful now, it would near kill him to give them to Suna when the time came.

Something Minato would surely cause another war over.

Better to take them away from him now while the bonds were not as strong.

Kushina just wished she had not waited so long.

…

In the backstreets of Konoha, there was a refuge for the ostracized little trio that reeked as much havoc as they did suspicion and hatred. Now, hatred was a bit of a harsh word and could just as well be misused but _hatred _was aptly used for the Sabaku twins and the Kyuubi no Jinchuuriki.

This hatred was a silent one, one that festered from resentments and the old wounds of an unneeded war against Suna. The twins had grown in the protective shadow of the Yondaime but even his reach was only so far and his mandates only so strong.

There was no law in shushing children away from swing sets when Kagome toddled over. There was no ban against whispering ghoulish things when Gaara 'played' in the sandbox and there was definitely no mandate in never inviting Naruto to birthday parties.

It weighed on Kushina heavily but unlike Minato and the ragtag trio, they shirked it off and took it as misunderstanding. Which, in the kindest sense, _it was._

Of course, just because the civilian population of Konoha rejected the 'Demon Children' did not mean that the shinobi clans did as well…

With Kagome's bubbling charisma she had acquired from Minato's upbringing, Gaara's unique abilities and Naruto's odd quality for always tagging along, the three of them were not only inseparable but had nestled themselves a coveted spot among the shinobi denizens.

A spot that meant protection especially when nearly every high ranking ninja harbored a soft spot for the three.

Kagome especially was privy to certain favors and was often presented with 'gifts' from her patrons.

Dark eyes narrowed as she stood on her tippy toes in her usual blood red romper

"C'mon Kagome…" Naruto pined as he clawed at the _taller_ girl. "Let me see!"

Kagome bit her lip, ready to cave but one toss glance to her brother and her resolve steeled. "No yet, not until you promise.".

"Okay, okay—I promise I _won't_ open it." Naruto's bare feet danced over the hot earth.

Kagome lowered the jar hovering above her dark spill of hair. "Okay, you swear? Because last time you did you released nearly _two thousand hundreds_ of stink bugs."

"I swear on my momma's life." Naruto placed a hand over his heart and fondled with the zipper of his orange hoodie. "Now lemme see, _please_."

Kagome squatted and Naruto mimicked her but fell onto his butt in the hot dirt. A cloudlet of dust coughed up at their uncoordinated movements. The sun glared down relentlessly on the ragtag trio cramped in a side-alley of downtown.

Kagome licked her upper lip and tasted salt from perspiration. "Gaara-nii," she beckoned over her shoulder.

Gaara's arms unfolded and laced themselves into his sleeves but he took a tentative step towards his sister. "Open it." Curiosity bloomed in his cyan eyes.

Naruto blinked vehemently and tossed a look between the twins. "Gaara doesn't know either?"

"Nope," Kagome announced triumphantly and stroked the cork lid fondly. "Told you I was able to keep a secret."

"Oh," Naruto grinned vulpine-like. "Kagome-chan?"

"Hm?" Kagome's fingertip nipped at the jar's lip and her dirty fingernails scratched anxiously.

"How much is _two thousand hundred_?"

Kagome thought on this. _"A lot."_

"Oh," Naruto silenced any further questions when Kagome snapped the twine. The lid flipped off and clattered to the hot earth. "Woah—_what is that?"_

Gaara leaned over his twin's shoulder and the pale green fabric of his clothes brushed against her neck. "Kagome…"

"Oh, hush—back up, back up," she shooed and dove her small hand into the opaque jar. Her hand resurfaced and bloomed with a white lobe the size of tangerine. "It's a skull."

"Of what?" Naruto yipped and rolled back startled.

"_I dunno."_ Kagome shrugged and held it up to Gaara for closer inspection. "Orochimaru-sama gave it to me yesterday."

Gaara's expression darkened. _"When?"_

"When you and Naruto were taking a bath, baka. Minato-sama let him in to talk boring stuff… and then—" She upheld the skull. "He slipped me this and told me to hide it." Kagome's face flashed with a bright, devious smile.

"It's _so_ cool," Naruto observed and already his grubby hands were outstretching to touch the pristine bone.

"Careful!" Kagome hissed. "I need to take it to Itach-kun, today. So I can't break it."

Gaara withdrew from his sister and crossed his arms with a vehement expression gnarling his porcelain features. "We have the entrance ceremony early tomorrow, Kagome. Kushina-danna wants us home before dark."

Simultaneously, Kagome and Naruto tossed a glance to the sweltering sky. A few cotton strands of cloud swirled around the looming sun.

"Looks pretty light out," Kagome chirped to the _apparent lack of daylight_.

"Yeah," Naruto immediately acquiesced. "But I'm hungry, Kagome-chan." He cupped his stomach and it gurgled in response. "Momma can make us lunch."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Kushina-danna won't let us go if we go back!"

Kushina kind of _hated_ it when they went into Uchiha Compound unsupervised. For Kagome had a tendency of being _swooped up_, either by someone or _something._

"Fine," Kagome stuffed the delicate cranium back into the jar and resealed it. She hoisted it under her armpit and looked down at the two boys. "I'll go by myself."

And before either boy could protest, she disappeared in a flurry of red and giggles.

…

Huddled in the shadows of bookcases and curtains of parchment, were two boys: one lithe, supple still with baby-fat but with a keenness of a weasel and promise of that of a great warrior while the other was much gawkier, uncultured in his words and had a rather thick pair of glasses perched upon the tip of his nose. Both held a rather limp mop of dark hair that spilled down their back, save for the younger's was well-kept and the elder's was frayed and spiked at the bangs. Both kept dark eyes of their clan and a pale complexion that bordered on sickly.

"Maybe it's a joke, like a cult or something?" Shisui craned his neck to peek at Itachi's incessant writings.

"A cult is a joke?" Itachi drawled as he dog-eared the sun-bleached page of a rather massive text. With a fine tuned print he jotted a keynote for referencing and proceeded to make comments on the sepia illustration.

The elder Uchiha shrugged and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Maybe, you never know with teenagers nowadays."

"Hm, _you are_ teenager, Shisui." Itachi snapped the book shut and stuffed it into messenger bag. Fingers of sunlight crept in and dust glittered in the air. Papers scattered as Itachi shelved the last of the vellums and scrolls. They were deep within their clan's archives and the air was always thick, especially with midsummer's humidity.

Dutifully Shisui shouldered the weight as Itachi stood in a single silent movement. "But they have to be disappearing for a_ good_ reason."

"Hence, why my father believes it is a kidnapping, Shisui," Itachi responded and drifted through the towering bookcases like a shadow.

Shisui scurried to his younger cousin's side. "Did you find anything though?"

"Very little." Itachi's eyes slipped to the messenger bag bouncing on Shisui's hip before unlatching the clan's library carved doublewide doors. The sunlit wood of the vestibule swelled before them with clan elders and their hushed mutterings. The older kinsmen were heavily robed and knotted together in tight throngs. On the farthest wall hung an immense tapestry and an altar with clumps of malformed candles that had been lit, relit and fused together. Save for the tender wisps of sunlight leaking in, the sultry candle-glow was the temple's only source of light.

Itachi crossed the vast room with a sparse glance to the candlelit tapestry, a scene of a thousand crows drifted across its wake and the murder swelled to the edges where the inky-jet birds dissipated into nothingness. At the epicenter of the avian cacophony was a shadowed figure.

The Uchiha's greatest ancestor, the Sage of Six Path's elder son…

The one who doomed them all.

Wordlessly, Itachi pushed passed his kinsmen and walked down the endless stone steps of the Nakano shrine without notice. And with Shisui on his tail, Itachi greeted the sunlight with an upturned gaze.

He closed his eyes to the warmth. He had been born in the summer and reveled in it.

"To the Police Department, then?" Shisui asked genially but before he could garner a response, his cousin was already gone. Shisui sighed and stepped into a Shunshin, a jutsu he had such an affinity for.

He flickered onto the concrete portico and tossed a glance to the looming Uchiwa emblem above on the imposing archway. A swarm of kinsmen exited the building and nodded over to him. Shisui nodded pleasantly enough _back _and proceeded to enter his uncle's workplace.

He found Itachi, much shorter than the rest but not in the least _less _attention worthy, teetering on his toes as he debated with the clerk at the front. "He is in his office, then?"

"Yes, but he is busy, Itachi-kun," she near shooed the prodigy away. "He has a lot on his plate, especially with this whole kidnapping incident."

A gesture with the hands and Itachi beckoned Shisui over. His cousin approached cautiously and fished the massive text out of his bag slung by his hip. "Here," he handed it over to the prodigy who hefted the book onto the counter.

"There has been a similar case, less than a decade ago with the same pattern in choosing victims and energy markers left at the crime scene," Itachi explained as he flipped open the book and skimmed its contents. "Except for one difference… The perpetrator targeted Uchiha last time."

The clerk sighed and buzzed the intercom. "Fugaku… Itachi is here. He solved your case for you."

The prodigy leaned back on his heels with an amused glint flittering in the darks of his eyes.

"Happy?" Shisui prodded.

"Yes."

Not a moment later Uchiha Fugaku emerged from a maze of cubicles with a trivet of clansmen at his back like harpies.

"Impossible, I've been working on this case for six weeks," Inabi snapped and his long umber hair became frayed on the ends at the sight of the smug prodigy standing in the anteroom. "Yashiro talk sense into him!"

The elder fair-haired Uchiha withdrew and simply shook his head. "Fugaku is not only your superior but your patriarch, Inabi. Remember that."

Tekka, a spitting image of Fugaku but _younger_, heaved, "Give it up, Inabi. Itachi got more headway within an hour than you did in a month."

This simply rekindled an old resentment and Inabi stormed off back into the offices when the prodigy _smirked._

Fugaku rubbed his temples but appraised his son with a firm nod. "I hope your claims have evidence, Itachi."

"They do, Chichi-ue," Itachi promised and handed his father his findings which consisted of a butchered text filled with post-its, dog-ears, highlighted phrases, keynotes and asterisks. "It's a pattern, once deciphered – you may be able to predict the kidnapper's next target."

"Well done," Fugaku nodded down to his son and his flicked his eyes to the nephew. "And you assisted your heir, I trust?"

"Uh…" Shisui floundered and his glasses teetered precariously.

"Yes," Itachi spoke up. "He organized the information and cross-referencing."

"Very good, the both of you," Fugaku commended and tucked the text under his arm. "You will be mentioned at the clan meeting tonight for your service."

"Tonight?" Shisui blanched. "I never heard of it until now…" He hated, _hated,_ _**hated **_clan meetings. His mom always made him wearthat _itchy_ haori…

"Your attendance will not be required, Shisui," Fugaku frowned and his face twisted into a nasty expression that resembled a pained grimace. "It is simply to discuss… a restructuring of sorts."

"Restructuring?" Itachi echoed with a suspicious gleam in his eyes. His hands that were limp at his sides twitched impulsively.

"Yes, we will discuss it tonight. Until then, I am very busy," Fugaku whirled on his heel and left just as abruptly as he had arrived.

"Hm, well that was a tad foreboding don't you th—" Shisui looked down only to find his cousin vanished. "Itachi? _Itachi?—oh fu-"_

…

Nakano River was known for running along a sparse network of inlets as it wove its way through Konoha before tunneling under the shrine and filtering out into a rather large mere at the base of the Uchiha Compound. It was a tepid thing during the summers and was more green than glassy especially by midsummer when the cicadas roared and those long afternoons promised a soaking.

Late summer would bring the most oppressive heat but along with it a fresh rain and all the humidity to drown anyone within a single breath.

But that was neither here nor there and Itachi always savored the smell of algae. It meant _life_, even in the most oppressive of environments. It was something to be admired.

He let his sandals sway over the dock's lip and over the glittering swells. The rhythmic laps of waters sipping at the shoreline lulled him into a light meditation.

Which was broken by the fast approaching _pitter-patter_ of footsteps on wood.

"Itachi-kun!" whooped a voice and afterwards, a bell-like laugh was elicited.

Itachi stared over his shoulder and regarded the prancing child with a placid expression.

Kagome darted over to him and surged onto him in a blur of red and black. "Look at what I have!" she announced, an opaque jar in her grasp and a face split with a smile.

Itachi tilted his head, never one to fuel her hyperactivity. She was young, but still, it was _annoying._ "Sit," he gestured calmly to the vacant space of mossy wood-plank. "Now speak."

Kagome dutifully plopped down, swung her legs over the dock and wobbled the jar in her lap. Sunlight glittered off the waters and reflected onto her ashen skin."I have something…" she began in a much more muted manner.

"Show me," Itachi said and his onyx eyes were locked with the child's own dark eyes.

Kagome hesitantly plopped open the cork lid and fished out a fistful. Before another second could get by, her small palm bloomed with that of a small skull.

"Kagome…" Itachi's brow shot up. Kagome was such an _odd _child. "Where on earth did you get that?"

Kagome shrugged. "I found it," she lied. "Why? What is it?"

Itachi _sighed._ "Use your investigative skills—your deductive reasoning—what do you _think _it is?"

Kagome nodded seriously; always ready to be put on task. "Well, it's a _skull_."

Itachi pinched the bridge of his nose with a long-drawn breath. "That is a _start_."

"And it's round… and very small… and I can see fangs…"

"Your conclusion?"

"A baby vampire?" Kagome surmised and blinked up to the prodigy with wide, smiling eyes.

"Give it here." Itachi's palm splayed and his fingers twitched. He tilted the cranium side-to-side, peered into its sockets and stroked the seams of bone plates. _"Cebus capucinus."_

"What?" Kagome wrinkled her nose as she tossed a mystified glance to the withering, cloudless sky.

"It's a monkey skull."

"_Cool._" Kagome's large doe-like eyes blinked and her hands became _grabby._ "Orochimaru-sama said I could keep it."

Itachi dropped the delicate cranium back into the child's jar. "Orochimaru gave this to you?"

"Um," Kagome's voice wavered and her movements stilled. She had been caught. "Yep."

"_Why?" _

Kagome's flimsy little shoulders uplifted and sagged beneath the scarlet straps of her romper. "I said I wanted a puppy and Kushina-danna said not unless it can clean up its own sh—"

"You shouldn't use that word."

"Right. Well, I told her monkeys could and she said if I could find a monkey I could keep it. So then…"

"Naturally, you went to Orochimaru," Itachi finished wearily. The Sannin indulged Kagome much too often for his tastes. "You shouldn't go into that lab of his, Kagome. It's no place for a little girl."

Kagome promptly stuck out her tongue at him and Itachi's expression remained unchanged as he stared at the little pink lump of flesh. "Orochimaru-sama says I can come in whenever I like."

Itachi made a mental note to monitor Orochimaru's interactions with Kagome much closely. Then he remembered—he already _had_. "I'm sure the Hokage would not be pleased if you discovered you hiding away—"

"Don't tell Minato-sama," Kagome implored and began to claw at the prodigy with dirty fingernails, to which Itach batted away easily. "You can't!"

"_Don't tell me what?"_

And just as quickly as a cloud passed overhead and sunlight could flood a valley, Minato stepped onto the dock with a wicked grin and the wind tossing his saffron yellow hair about. He approached the two children with a silent, confidant stride and flame-embossed coattails billowing.

Kagome immediately submitted when her Hokage loomed overhead and patted her head. "Um, nothing… just Itachi-kun is being mean."

"I highly doubt that," Minato argued lightly but his gaze flicked down to the prodigy. "Were you two training again?" he asked a bit tersely.

Itachi shook his head. "Not after you forbid it, Hokage-sama."

"Then what else could you be doing that I you wouldn't want to tell me?" Minato verbally prodded and his hand remained firmly locked on top of Kagome's skull.

Itachi's eyes narrowed.

"Itachi-kun says I can't go into Orochimaru-sama's lab!" She looked up desperately for her Hokage's approval but immediately found his electric blue eyes dimming. "But I only did it once, Minato-sama, I swear." His hand fell from her head and she immediately outstretched for it and gripped it with hers. "Minato-sama?" she yanked on his arm and became near frantic when his face slacked and his eyes grew distant. _"Minato-sama!"_

Itachi stood and his eyes sharpened at the sudden onslaught of depression that swelled over the usual upbeat Yondaime. Something was… _off._ "Is something else troubling you, Hokage-sama?"

Minato sobered immediately. "Ah, yes, it just dawned on me that I won't be able to disapprove of Kagome's actions from this moment on…" A thought that nearly rendered him catatonic when looking into Kagome's dark hopeful eyes.

"I don't quite follow," Itachi said in that smooth tone that still clung to that childlike lilt.

"Your father as well as the other clans have been informed of the situation and are acting accordingly." Minato tousled Kagome's jet-black bangs. "From this day forth, Kagome, I am no longer your guardian."

"—_what?" _Kagome sucked in a breath and her eyes widened to shimmering saucers. _"Why?_ What did I do wrong?_" _

Minato sunk to his knees and his cloak pooled onto the wooden slats. "Absolutely nothing," he promised and clutched her willowy frame fervently, as if the wind might swoop her away. "It's simply time that you and Gaara… find a more permanent home."

"But I don't wanna leave Konoha!" Kagome protested and her face flushed pink. "I hate Suna! Don't make me go back!"

Itachi winced, Kagome's pitch was enough to split eardrums but his entire body went rigid. Was the Hokage seriously considering shipping the twins back to their homeland? After a whole war was fought to protect them? It seemed so… _pointless._

"No, no, no," Minato cooed and patted her flushed cheek. "Buck up, Stinky and know you're not going anywhere." He ushered her towards him and Kagome's small body caved in onto Minato's chest.

Itachi locked gazes with the Yondaime. His bright, bright eyes were frantic. "Your father has received my missives. Tell him I accept his proposal."

Confusion was an uncomfortable thing for the Uchiha Prodigy to experience and was most unwelcome. "Proposal regarding what, Hokage-sama?"

Minato stood and with Kagome clutched firmly to his chest, he said, "The one regarding Kagome's new living arrangements."

_Restructuring? Is that what they call social climbing nowadays, Chichi-ue? _Itachi's lips quirked. "I see."

With that taken care of, Minato shifted the girl in his grasp and focused his attention solely on her. "You still crying, Stinky?" he chirped.

Kagome sniffled but slid out of his grasp stubbornly enough. Her scarlet romper was rumpled and she wiped her nose on Minato's cloak. "No…"

"Good, do want a snowcone, then? We can race for it."

"But you're _the_ Yellow Flash."

"I'll give you a two second head start—"

"Okay!"

"Oi! Not yet, not yet! I didn't say go—_cheater!"_

Itachi watched as Kagome yipped as she skidded over the dock and rocketed over the undulating knolls, waist-deep in summer grass. He watched as the leader of his village forsook his pride and gave chase to keep up the brilliant façade of _losing._ Kagome's laughter rioted like bells and the Yondaime's movements became clumsy and _carefree._

Only around Kagome did Minato melt into a gaggling, uncoordinated _boy _and only around Minato did Kagome truly blossom into the whooping, hyperactive little girl she was always trying so hard to hide.

The two had a strong bond, an odd one at that, but_ strong_.

Especially since Kagome had had a crush on Namikaze Minato ever since she could walk.

A fact, that to this day, always made Itachi feel very _hollow_ inside.

…

The soft jingle of glass caught his ears and the sharp aroma of disinfectant stung his nostrils. Itachi pressed forth down the long corridor nonetheless and the fluorescents above flickered eerily in foreboding. A moth flung itself over and over at the lighting until its body gave and it died in a crumpled ribbon of powdery velvet wings.

Itachi rammed the laboratory's sealed door with his heel and pushed it open with his back as his hands were preoccupied. Lights, much brighter than the hallway's, flooded the Uchiha's vision but his pupils were not pained in the least as his bloodline limit were activated and glutted his irises with a vicious red pigment and tomoe.

"Ah," chortled a rasping, near feminine pitch. "Itachi-kun."

Orochimaru, adorned in a crisp-white lab coat, was craned over a microscope at a gleaming metal operation table and garnered the Uchiha prodigy with a furtive simper.

"I came to return something of yours." Itachi's eyes flicked to the flayed hairless cat laying casually beside the Sannin and felt his inside grow taut and twisted. Around him were bookcases filled with countless jars and vials, all containing either some viscous yellowish substance or fetal creature.

Orochimaru idly picked at the dissected cat with a metal prong. "I see. Did my little mouse misplace her newest _gift_ already?" He swiveled in his chair and cupped his cheekbones with his bone-white fingers.

Itachi's eyes locked with the Sannin's angular yellow-gold. They reminded him of the soft underbelly of a serpent. "That is typically what happens when you associate with _children_… you have conflict of interests."

"Or motives," Orochimaru quipped and his tongue slipped out to lick his bottom lip. "But you are a child, Itachi-kun and it seems our motives align when our dear little Kagome-chan is concerned."

Itachi slammed the jar onto the operating table—_vials tingled, tools teetered precariously, papers scattered…_ "Please do not compare me to you."

Orochimaru's expression jumped and then tore into a sharp smile at the small Uchiha's sudden burst of emotion. "Ah, but I must because not even you understand what your own subconscious desires."

Itachi's nose wrinkled and his young face hardened. "I do not… desire Kagome."

The Sannin simply coiled a palm around the jar with a knowing smirk. "And why wouldn't you?"

"Because…" Itachi's face twisted with thought. "Kagome is _weird_."

A rasping chuckle slipped past the Sannin's lips as he tucked the opaque jar away into a cabinet by his knees. "Oh, how naïve you are Itachi-kun."

"Do not give things to Kagome without the Yondaime's permission again," Itachi interjected and the threat was clear-cut and cold.

"Surely you know the Yondaime has lost all guardianship and authority…" A sleek strand of dark hair slipped past the Sannin's shoulders as his rapacious gaze narrowed at the Uchiha prodigy. "After all, it is _your_ clan who has replaced him as the twins' keeper."

The fact that Orochimaru had already received this information before it could even begin to become hearsay was disconcerting to Itachi.

"Then as heir I forbid Kagome to come into your laboratory without supervision."

"I _am _thesupervision, Itachi-kun." Orochimaru dismissed the prodigy with a hand motion as he swiveled in his chair and turned his back to the young boy to busy himself with re-alphabetizing his scattered research. "You can see yourself out."

Itachi slipped into shadow and wordlessly disappeared.

But not without the single conviction that he would one day _kill _Orochimaru.

Said Sannin shirked off the killing intent as easily as a snake shedding its skin and proceeded to snip at the feline's ribs with bone cutters. The bone splintered and revealed a dark core of marrow.

His thoughts drifted to the small dark-eyed child.

Kagome reminded him of himself when he had been younger. Her voracious curiosity and yearning to protect those she loved at any cost thrummed hard within the girl's tiny fluttering heart. She had a near inextinguishable innocence that burned within her and bubbly charm that drew everyone in.

Her potential as a shinobi was by no means remarkable. She simply had the advantage of having a prodigy's, a Sannin's and the Hokage's favor and was very much privy to a lesson or two. But her drive to be strong and craving for recognition from those she admired was enough to get her notice…

_For now_, Orochimaru mused and dislocated a femur.

Kagome was simply articulate and quick on her feet. She appeared to be more advanced, which many wanted to believe (the Hokage especially); but Orochimaru knew better. Kagome would never be a threat to him on the battlefield but could be a precious asset from the pure emotional collateral she held with the higher ranks.

She had her uses yet.

'_I never want to leave Konoha,'_ she had told him not too long ago. _'I want to protect Gaara-nii from everyone. I want to train with Itachi-kun and not get hurt. I want to be useful to Minato-sama so that he doesn't have to fight for me.' _

'_I can teach you many things,'_ he had promised her with a pat to the cheek. _'But I need to know if you can keep secrets.'_

'_Of course, Orochimaru-sama,'_ she had promised with a brilliant, innocent grin.

A smile cracked across the Sannin's white lips, truly, the child was so like him in some ways…

'_Then listen well and I will show you things no one else has ever seen. I will give strength. I will give you power…'_

He remembered her swift nod and gracious words –_the gentle pinch of a cheek, the deep well of hunger reflecting in her eager eyes, the hushed whispers between them…_

Kagome was by far his most loyal protégée to this day.

Orochimaru had told her many, many secrets ever since…

…

It was not unlike a lion stalking a gazelle as Uchiha Sasuke crept along the cracked balustrade overlooking the marketplace. With a shuriken laced hand and his dark sprout of hair bobbing in his high collar, the younger Uchiha heir slipped off and leapt onto the perched awning of a fruit stand.

The sun lapped at his back greedily due to the dark fabric and his clan's uchiwa emblem remained emblazoned. A swell of people rushed beneath him and Sasuke kept his young eyes sharp and searching…

Then his hearing picked up the most _awful_ sound to ever grace his eardrums.

That clanging, earsplitting and _oh so very_ _**annoying **_bell-like laugh came within earshot over the bustle of crowds and proclamations of sweated vendors. Sasuke winced at the very sound.

She was here, alright.

Then his young clan-bred eyes caught sight of a translucent gold mane and the flutter of ruby red fabric.

Kagome was saddled on the Yondaime's shoulders drifting among the crowds, which parted like the sea for them. The girl in red smashed her pink lips over a syrupy dome of ice while the Hokage did the same but in a much more muted manner.

She was a prime target _but_ the Yondaime would be_ fast_ to react. Maybe Sasuke would not even be able to even launch his attack…

Then like an apocalypse's caveat of fire and brimstone, the world stilled, blurred, near became colorless…

And all Uchiha Sasuke saw was a pair of frenetic electric-blue eyes staring at _him._

There was a wild ferocity scintillating in the Yondaime's gaze and he had the young Uchiha rendered catatonic with but a glimpse and influx of chakra.

Minato's simple glance spoke volumes: _I see you._

Then, as if nothing had ever occurred the world burst to life in a rupture of colors, sounds, smells_, dust, sunlight, sweat, shouts, laughter…_

It flooded his senses in an unrelenting onslaught and Sasuke near lost his footing but a movement caught his attention once more—

"Let's take a rest," Minato suggested and lifted the small girl from his shoulders.

Kagome was now vulnerable.

It was now or never!

"Sabaku no Kagome," Sasuke called out arrogantly and the crowds beneath him paused to look up to the Uchiha.

Kagome swiveled on her heels and her rumpled romper fluttered like blood-red wings of a cardinal. _"You—!" _she roared with a pointed finger and her snowcone lodged in the other hand.

A shuriken sprouted in her snowcone's cup in response, subsequently knocking it out of Kagome's grasp and letting the sugary ice splatter onto the dusty sun baked earth.

Kagome's face slacked in horror at her loss of dessert. _"Teme!"_

Sasuke flipped off the veranda, losing high ground but able to make the crowds part further.

"I hereby challenge you to a duel…" he drawled theatrically and the shuriken clinked threateningly between his knuckles. "To the death."

The surrounding crowds shushed and gasped. Minato meanwhile tossed a blank look between the two dark-haired children. _"Again?"_

Sasuke grit his teeth. Now was his chance, he would finally eliminate the _**one thing**_ that kept his older brother from acknowledging him! "Do you accept?" he prompted with a vicious gaze.

"Yes, I accept…" Kagome brushed off her romper and tossed one final glance to her spilt snowcone. It was an unforgivable offense against her honor! "And I'm gonna skin you alive Uchiha Sasuke!"

A few women fainted theatrically.

Minato blinked and began to leave the 'battlefield'. "Play nice, you guys."

It was always the same, ever since they could walk and Itachi's favor had always leaned towards Kagome…

"Prepare to die Kagome!"

Uchiha Sasuke had dubbed Sabaku no Kagome his ultimate rival.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I really wanted to do a broad overview on Kagome's relationship with each of the main characters. Next chapter I intend on focusing primarily on Gaara and her. Romance? Many of you have asked and _of course_ there will be. Pairing(s)? Yes but I'm letting this story flesh itself out before I decide because there are _a lot_ of ways I could take it. And believe me, I am considering _all_ options. Thank HalfBlackWolfDemon for being a fabulous beta! I hope you all enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it! ~KK

**Side Note**: Many of you may already be aware but this new site http : / flawless – addiction . webs . Com / is a Kagome crossover appreciation site. They tell us to whore ourselves out so that when nominations come up this past June 8, you guys (our fans) will nominate your favorite authors and hence promote the site, but I really encourage people to join just to participate in the plethora things there. Plus, I'm there and I creep on people to talk to me while I'm glued to this keyboard smashing buttons:3 ~KK

…I think I just inadvertently whored myself out?

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><p><span>Update Schedule<span>

75+ Reviews = Continued (Quickly)

45+ Reviews = Continued

45 or less = Hiatus

35 or less = Discontinued and Deleted


	5. Mongoose Girl

**Author's Note:** Before I left I wanted to update this. ~KK

* * *

><p><em>Byblis<em>

* * *

><p>And I know we've got a long way to go<br>I know I've got so far  
>We built this house with our hands, and our time, and our blood<br>You build this up in one day to fall downward and rust

_-Virgin_

* * *

><p>The arena had been set!<p>

The crowd wreathed around the two young warriors in a sweated, dusty ringlet. The balmy summer air smelled sweet of rotted fruit, sweat and the cloying haze of tobacco. Nerves were on end as no one dared to intervene. Shinobi children were not unlike infant vipers; _unpracticed _and _uncontrolled_ in how much venom they used when striking.

Young ninjas had a tendency to _overcompensate_.

Sasuke puffed his chest and flicked his armed hand behind his back. His resolve faltered at the sight of Kagome's large dark eyes blinking at him, but steeled when a trenchant of shuriken came rocketing forth.

Sasuke deflected with his own barrage and became subsequently disarmed. The little metal stars _clinked_ on contact and sputtered in haphazard ricochets.

Kagome tittered and twirled in her blood red romper. She was like a plashet of fresh spilt blood upon the paled sun-baked earth. "Ne, Uchiha Sasuke? You only brought shuriken with you?" She licked her lips and lowered to a crouch. Her willowy arms became featherless, perched wings and swooped up when the young kunoichi launched forth in a spurt of chakra.

Sasuke saw a flash of red before his insides caved in on themselves. A horrible pain knotted in his gut and Sasuke looked down to see Kagome's tiny bundled fist lodged under his ribcage.

"Surrender Uchiha Sasuke!" Kagome demanded and twisted her knuckles further into the boy for assurance.

Sasuke heaved up a ragged, phlegm-laden cough.

Kagome paused at the Uchiha's sudden lapse of composure but scolded herself mentally when the near unconscious Uchiha was replaced by a _log!_

"Curse you, Uchiha," Kagome gritted out, feeling splinters dig into the thin skin of her knuckles. The wooden cylinder was thrown aside and a few women screeched at the projectile. Kagome whirled with nostrils flaring and dark eyes flitting about the crowds, the stalls…

Her ultimate rival was nowhere to be found!

"Stop hiding in the shadows, you coward!" Kagome licked her upper lip; she tasted heated flesh and salt.

A great shadow descended onto her and curtained her vision with a swift _thwack _to her temple.

A grapefruit collided to the ground and Kagome watched dazedly as the projectile rolled in a slothful rotation

Kagome swayed on her toes before toppling over into the hot earth with a puff of dust.

Uchiha Sasuke let out a breath he had been holding deep within him as he stood over the felled Sabaku no Kagome. She was a crumpled form with scarlet cotton, black hair and pale skin. Sasuke blinked. "Kagome," he breathed out as he toed her ribs. "Kagome, get up. It isn't funny."

A ripple of murmurs spread amongst the crowds.

_Is she dead?_

_Looks like it._

_In one shot? Doubt it._

_Wait until the Yondaime hears this. _

_Did that kid seriously kill one of the Sabaku Twins with a grapefruit?_

_No, she was killed with a cumquat. _

_Nope, that's definitely a grapefruit._

_Sarcasm, you imbecile. _

_That's most definitely a melon!_

A foreign sensation trembled in Uchiha Sasuke's belly. He had never experienced this type of anxiety before and as he stared at Kagome's motionless form, it only worsened.

This was precisely the moment the young heir's lower lip trembled and he cast an utterly dismayed expression to the crowd. "I-I didn't mean to!" he defended and began a monologue to justify his actions of self defense, honor, sparring risks and so forth.

People's expressions slackened but did not condemn the young Uchiha. Konoha's civilian populace all concurred that the Sabaku Twins were no good. They were a bane of nature; vile beasts in making; demon children to be exorcised. If hadn't been for Minato's charity and supreme mandates, the twins would have been dealt with long ago.

The young Uchiha heir had made an excellent scapegoat to promptly secure their children's future and safety.

Meanwhile and amidst the hot dirt of sun baked earth, Kagome felt the heavy blanket of unconsciousness melt away under the sun's gaze. She groaned, rolled her skull on the hard ground and fluttered her eyes. Sasuke's blue sandals came into view and she could see his grubby, dirty toenails.

_Ew_, Kagome wrinkled her nose at the young heir's feet. Her ears focused in and soon the faraway mutterings became distinct formulated words.

"…_and I had every right as a shinobi of the great Uchiha clan to duel Sabaku no Kagome..."_

_What a load of baloney sandwiches! _And with that final thought Kagome's hand shot out and caught Sasuke's ankle in a vise-like grip before yanking him off his feet.

However Kagome's plan had gone much differently in her head when she had thought it over for about a millisecond or two. Her forethought never predicted him actually falling _on top_ of her or his elbow colliding with her stomach or their heads smashing together or the fact that she might vomit.

"Get off," Kagome uttered low feeling her stomach about to lurch. Sasuke remained heavy as a sack of potatoes on her very _squishy_ person. "Get off or I slit your throat."

Sasuke rolled off, disoriented by both the near-concussion and Kagome's revival. "You're alive?"

Kagome couldn't tell if that was relief or disappointment. Either one made her uncomfortable as she stared at his dark sprout of hair dusty with dirt and his eyes befuddled with her warped reflection.

So Kagome did what she always did when couldn't figure out the answers.

She bit him.

Sasuke grunted at the sudden force of Kagome's tackling gesture and tried to push her off but sharp pain prickled on his forearm. He reacted by giving a nice hard tug to a handful of her inky black hair.

It was soon a battle of who would give in first. Sasuke's grip remained painfully taut on Kagome's hair while her teeth remained bitten into skin and her eyes feral.

"_Let go—!" _

"_Mhmgrrh."_

She was a beast and Sasuke was going to rip the hair clean from her scalp in the next moment—

But a swell of sand sloshing over his person stopped him and what was left in its place was a small clump of black hair knotted around his fingers and a pile of sand on his chest.

"Gaara…" Sasuke growled and shot to his feet in a flash. He glared at the redheaded boy casually nested above on the balustrade. With his sister safely swaddled in a cocoon of sand and his cyan eyes fixed on the unarmed Uchiha, Gaara seemed calm and collected compared to Sasuke's own frazzled state.

Now the crowd wavered at the arrival of the Jinchuuriki.

"Uchiha Sasuke…" Gaara tilted his head and his tone was dead. "What did I tell you about fighting with my sister?" He remained crouched and small but sifting currents of sand undulated in the air and formed floating orbs, ready to take shape and strike.

A muffled protest and Kagome's head popped out of the sand chrysalis like an ostrich. "Let me go, Gaara-nii. I can take him."

"You've done enough, imouto," Gaara said and his voice was rasped. A tremor broke out over his body and his pupils dilated. "Just need to teach him a lesson…"

"Gaara…?" Kagome's face slacked for a moment's fear but then hardened with resolve. "Gaara look at me!" she ordered and watched as her brother paused in his motions. The arsenal of floating sand paused midair as the elder twin faced the younger.

Their eyes met and Gaara's became transfixed by Kagome's dark gaze.

A crescent of sunlight formed on a pale cheek and tapered to her split bottom lip. Gaara became transfixed at the ripped flesh, the thin red crust of _blood._

His sister was bleeding. His twin was bleeding. They shared the same blood. She was bleeding. He was bleeding._ They_ were _**bleeding.**_

His hand reached out.

"That's right," Kagome praised in a whisper and slowly the sand around her slipped away and dissipated into the air. Her feet touched the hot stone of the cracked railing and she approached her twin cautiously. "Just keep looking at me," she coerced and soon her hands were interlacing with his. "Now, all the bad you feel and the whispers you hear… _**give**_ them to me…"

Gaara's gaze faltered for a moment, even sobered and an iridescent sheen washed over those eyes of his. Tears brimmed on the lid. "No…you can't…" And then his palm left his twin's hold and gripped his skull. He hunched over in pain and let out an ached grunt that came out more as a growl. "You can't handle it…" He fell to his knees. "Not again!"

Kagome fell with him. "Gaara, Gaara…" she cooed and clutched him to her. His muscles were wound so tight it was like embracing stone. "Just give me all your bad thoughts. Give them all to me. All the bad. Just let it all go and into me." Her mantra continued on until Gaara's shields gave way and his entire body began to convulse.

Kagome felt it.

Within her twin swirled a massive pit of despair, bloodlust and rage. Unlike the Kyuubi, who was caged within a dank antechamber inside of Naruto, the Ichibi resided within a trench of sifting black sands. Under the tumultuous purple thunderheads, a dark tempest fumed with demonic chakra. And deep within smoldered twin amber orbs of the demon, unblinking and always_ staring_ directly at her.

Kagome willed as much of the Ichibi's escaping essence from her brother's system as she could. She could envision the translucent blue veins interlacing through her twin's flesh and could see the inky black taint trickling in drop by drop…

She willed it to dissipate but the tragedy was that a demon's power never truly _disappeared._

Like all matter, destruction is physically impossible and only the transfusion of phases or forms may take place.

And in this tiny shell of a girl such a transformation took place.

Drop by drop, like the darkest of inks, the chakra seeped into her as her own system _purified_ the noxious black essence.

Such things had their side effects, however.

Those_ conveniently_ being: Gaara rendered catatonic and Kagome being prone to violent outbursts.

Said violent outburst included Kagome somersaulting off the balustrade and head butting Sasuke with a ring of spectators.

"Freak!" Sasuke barked with a furious blush and his palm rubbing his head. "Did you just glow pink?" he taunted. "What a _lame_ jutsu."

Kagome reacted accordingly and launched herself onto him. "It's better than having a girly face like yours!" She punctuated the sentence with her fist smashing into Sasuke's small shapely nose.

A breath of shock shushed the crowd and Sasuke's vision flushed white as pain resonated through his snout.

Kagome retracted her fist and kept it poised alongside her shoulder. "Call me a freak, one more time."

Sasuke's eyes remained riveted to the small blotch of blood on Kagome's knuckles. He groped his upper lip and found a fresh globule dribbling from one of his deflated nostrils. She had broken his nose!

Kagome's dark eyes narrowed but then immediately became transfixed at the sight of blood seeping from the Uchiha's crumpled nose. Realization at what she had done donned on her and her eyes flitted over to her curled knuckles. The small vermillion splotch dried under the sun's withering gaze and she brought it to her lips. With a deft flick of the tongue, she lapped Sasuke's blood clean from her hand.

"What the…" Sasuke's words fell short.

Kagome blinked. "Hm?"

With every ounce of breath stored in his lungs, Sasuke bellowed, _"Get off me, freak!"_

And with every ounce of strength stored in her right tricep, Kagome struck and was about to render the Uchiha unconscious—

When a willowy hand caught her fist and stemmed her strike. "That's enough, Kagome."

Kagome whirled and found Itachi stark against a sunlit silhouette. "He started it!"

Itachi promptly picked up the five year old by the scruff of her red romper. "You took it too far."

Kagome's lower jutted and the soft pink cushion of flesh quivered. "I'm not saying sorry."

Itachi's lips twitched into a simper. "I expected nothing less." His dark eyes flicked down to his brother who was covered in a film of ochre dust and cupping his nose. "Sasuke, get up."

Begrudgingly the young heir did as his elder commanded and sent an utter murderous glare to the petulant girl. "I was fine, nii-san."

Itachi ignored Sasuke's perpetual ingratitude and garnered Kagome with a flat look. "If I release you, will you continue on with this ridiculous 'duel to the death'?"

Kagome's spine tingled at the sound of Itachi's voice. It was that snappy, sharp tenor that he took before he was about use more _violent _means. "Nope."

With tapered fingers, he released her unceremoniously and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fortunately I caught you two before my father's police did."

Sasuke kicked the dirt. Kagome twirled and a coy smile split across her lips. "Where is Gaara?" she asked airily.

Itachi's brow knitted at the sudden burst of cheerfulness from the girl who just had her fist buried into his younger brother's face.

Gaara materialized before in a cloudlet of sand granules. His hands roamed about his skull, eyes bulging and pale with an opaque, lifeless sheen. _"We're bleeding, we're bleeding, we're bleeding..."_ He kept on chanting endlessly.

"Oh no," Kagome's crestfallen voice whined. "Gaara!" She scuttled over to him.

Itachi approached, eyes roving over Kagome's helpless prods and Gaara's unresponsive mantra. Then he spotted Kagome's split lip. "Kagome."

"What?" she snapped and her dark eyes were deep wells of dismay and hurt.

He lightly tapped his own lips. "Heal yourself," he reminded. She knew Gaara did not take to the sight of her blood well.

Kagome blushed at the reprimand and her own stupidity for not noticing such a blatant mistake. In a flash of pink light at her fingertips, the flesh was uncut and bloodless.

Gaara's mutterings ceased almost instantaneously and his gaze sobered.

"Shh," Kagome hushed as a gasping Gaara collapsed onto his sister's chest and her eyes darted about defensively. The shriveling crowd broke out in blatant scorn.

_Demon child!_

_Unnatural little witch!_

_She speaks to the demon!_

_She is under its influence!_

_They both are!_

_No the boy is a demon!_

Itachi immediately fell into a defensive stance, surrounded on all sides and with three vulnerable targets to protect; he was in a bit of a tight spot. "Sasuke, get behind me," he ordered and felt his brother skitter behind with hands locked onto his pant legs.

But while Sasuke trembled, Kagome became brazen as she was still inebriated with the imprint of Ichibi's influence. _"I'll kill all of you!"_ she screeched and leapt up to her feet. "Call my brother a demon one more time and I'll skin you alive!"

Her response was a slew of expletives from some teenagers and few words that no five year old could even guess at what they meant, let alone be called. But to Kagome's credit, the word 'demon' was no longer in use.

"Kagome, run," he bit out.

"I won't leave my brother!" she bellowed and every muscle was taut in that little body of hers. But Itachi could see her footing waver and her lips trembling. She was scared but she would never abandon someone she loved.

The crowd closed in—

Itachi grit his teeth, nonlethal measures would not be an option if this turned truly violent.

Then by an act of saving grace, a shadow flickered into the marketplace and was thankfully of adult size.

Hatake Kakashi took a bite of an apple from beneath his ANBU mask. Beneath the contoured eyelets of his porcelain wolf mask lay one baleful grey orb and another ruby Sharingan appraising the crowd. "Get lost, all of you, or ANBU will put all of you into confinement," Kakashi drawled and slipped his apple under the lip of his mask once more for another crisp bite.

The crowd drifted away swiftly enough at the young ANBU Captain's words, knowing full well that ANBU confinement made police detainment look like the spa treatment. "Your clan will be having a meeting soon, Itachi-kun," Kakashi informed and his Sharingan seemed to mock the Uchiha. "I suggest you make your way back to the compound."

Itachi sent a silent look over to Kagome, who was still flushed with nostrils flaring as she was itching to _bite _something.

Kakashi followed Itachi's line of sight and pushed his mask back. "I'll take care of her."

Itachi remained motionless, hesitant in the Copy Cat ninja's promise.

Kakashi sighed with tested patience. "My Sharingan is more than capable in taming her for the moment."

"One of my kinsmen would be much better suited," Itachi prompted, knowing his own Kekkei Genkai was still young and maturing.

"And that is precisely why your clan has been awarded guardianship over the twins," Kakashi quipped deprecatingly. "But that is for another day, yes?"

"So it would seem," Itachi murmured and drifted away with his brother in hand.

Kakashi grit his teeth, annoyed at the impending complaint Uchiha Fugaku would file against him because his prodigious son was self conscious over his budding Sharingan. "Kagome," Kakashi commanded her attention.

The girl in red with scuffed knees, dirt in her hair and blushing cheeks spun towards him. She was a whirlwind of violence. Her eyes were dark, her romper a scorching ruby-red and her hands curled into tight white fists. "Oh great," she groaned at Kakashi's arrival.

Kakashi ran a hand over his scalp, through his silver hair and over the porcelain nose of wolf mask. "Kagome…" he tried but words evaded him. His tongue went dry. "Just… Go home."

Kagome stared at him for a long while, the same way a rapid cat stares down an old hunter, but then the tension snapped and her movements were nippy, quick-fingered things and Gaara's recovery was swift. The Sharingan's sway over her was swift in its influence and chased away the remnants of Ichibi's rage. She plucked her brother up and dusted them off. Gaara barely glanced at Kakashi before yanking his twin to his chest protectively.

Before Kakashi could even blink, the twins had disappeared into a swirl of sand.

He could not blame them for their curtness.

It was no secret Hatake Kakashi_ hated_ the Sabaku Twins.

…

Once in awhile, Minato liked to enjoy teatime which typically took place on a chance afternoon between two and four. However, between the teacup and the fetching of the piping teapot, the twins barreled into the house with Kushina on their heels.

"I can't believe you Kagome, you don't ever think things through—"

"Oh dear." Torn, Minato plopped the teapot onto a cool burner and popped his blond head around the corner and down into the hallway. A tendril of red hair retreated into the twin's bedroom and Minato darted after.

Minato hovered in the doorway as Kushina loomed over Kagome and Gaara scuttled up to their bunk bed to the top. Both redheads stared at Kagome who looked like she was about to collapse.

"I did everything right! I defended myself," Kagome argued back as she flopped onto the lower bunk. "Minato-sama tell her!" she griped and crumpled into her scarlet blankets.

Kushina's expression was hard when she turned to him with green eyes bright as antifreeze and just as feral. "Tell me what?"

Minato swallowed. Whatever fire Kushina had burning within her when they had first married had dimmed to a bitter hearth that simply hissed and singed all who came near her. "Nothing… and Kagome I only told you to do so in extreme circumstances…" And although he did not have the full story, he doubted Kagome's little excursion qualified. "What have I said about just walking away?"

Kagome's head popped up from her head. Her dark hair spilled over her face in dark waterfalls. "See! I knew you would take her side!"

"I'm not taking anyone's side," Minato responded diplomatically.

"You should, I'm your wife," Kushina huffed.

"Kushina, _please_," Minato begged for civility. "Now, someone tell me what happened."

Both females promptly turned away from the Yondaime Hokage and _pouted._

Minato clicked his tongue with tried serenity. "Is this about what happened with you and Sasuke-chan's play fight?"

"Play fight?" Kushina scoffed and her arms unfolded into what resembled harpy's claws. "Is that what you call inciting a riot and warranting the ANBU to intervene? It's all around the village already. I didn't even walk two blocks to the market before I had people staring at me."

"Um…I did sort of leave the two of them to their own devices." He had thought Kagome and Sasuke were just sparring.

"See! I told you Minato-sama said it was okay," Kagome defended and stuck out her tongue to punctuate the fact. "And it was just Kakashi who butted in…"

"Oh, Kakashi was there?" Minato said owlishly. "Then it must've been bad." Kakashi could never be bothered with the twin's wellbeing nowadays, unless it was life threatening. "Well, since he is the only viable witness, I guess the tale will wait for another day. Now if you would excuse me my teatime awaits…" And Minato was almost out the door when—

"You're grounded," Kushina suddenly exploded.

"_What?" _Kagome guffawed. "You can't ground me!"

"And why not?"

"Because I don't live here anymore!" Kagome had her own respective explosion.

A heavy blanket of silence followed that horrible truth.

"We don't?" Gaara spoke up meekly from the top bunk.

"No, we don't," Kagome reaffirmed. "They're throwing us out. Haven't you heard everyone talking about it?"

"No…"

Kushina's face bloomed red and her eyes flitted over to Minato. "You _told_ them?"

Minato threw up his hands in defense. "Definitely not…" He only mildly hinted to it out of context in an offhand conversation with Itachi. Could have Kagome really picked up on that? If so than she truly was as sharp as they came, especially when she had bided her time in revealing the knowledge. "C'mon Stinky, let us explain…"

Kagome's fury wavered at her old nickname. "Get her out," she muttered and pointed an accusing finger towards Kushina.

"I'm not—"

But Minato was already sitting alongside Kagome and tousling her hair before the ex-Jinchuuriki could protest.

Kushina fled the room in a flurry of blood red hair and growls.

Kagome swaddled herself in her blankets and she resembled little red riding hood. "I didn't mean to make trouble…but they all called Gaara-nii bad names and I got so mad…"

Minato sighed; it seemed Kagome took on some of the Ichibi's influence once again. "How are you feeling? You want something to eat? Drink? I have tea, you know."

Kagome just shook her head and receded further. "My tummy feels… bad."

"Yeah, I felt nauseous when I first encountered the Kyuubi's chakra too." Minato leaned back onto the squeaky mattress, feeling a sudden rush of supreme weariness fall over him. How was he expected to turn these two out into the world?

"I'm sorry, imouto," Gaara's voice was suddenly just a scant foot away.

Minato jumped at the child's sudden materialization at the bunk's edge but Kagome remained unnerved.

"Don't say sorry," Kagome started heatedly. "Because sorry means you did something wrong and you did nothing wrong."

Gaara simply nodded but the shadows beneath his eyes darkened. "Kagome bled," he told Minato straight faced.

"Ah, that would explain it." Minato near winced. Gaara being never injured himself, never took to Kagome's own injuries quite well. In fact, it was just from that sight alone no matter how minute (paper cut or otherwise) that caused the majority of Gaara's outbursts. "You have to pay attention, Kagome and heal yourself as quickly as possible."

"I know…" Kagome admitted and her forehead collided with Minato's shoulder. "I'm so tired," she yawned.

Minato cast a look at the red lump of fabric slumped against him and inflating and deflating in heavy breaths. Minato slowly slipped out from under Kagome's sudden sleeping form and cast a look to Gaara from the doorway. "Watch over her and let me know if she… gets _upset _again."

The small redhead nodded before hopping onto the bed alongside his sleeping twin.

Gaara watched as Minato disappeared down into the halls in the next moment. The Hokage's concern was genuine but never lasting. He always had things to do or places to be. 'Prior commitments' as he called them always (no matter how trivial) had him preoccupied and away from the household which left just about everyone else within the house pining for his attention. Gaara never really saw the appeal in Namikaze Minato's affections but they were something his twin strode for and seemed to feed off of.

And anything or _anyone_ for that matter that gave his sister happiness or some semblance of it was enough for Gaara's approval. Approval meaning mild tolerance but still, when bloodlust overrode his senses, Gaara at least _tried _not to kill Namikaze Minato.

"Kagome," Gaara flicked his twin's blanketed head. "I know you're faking."

Kagome popped up with wide dark eyes and a devious smile pulling on her lips. "So?"

"What are you up to?" he queried and his cyan eyes were downcast, almost _nervous._

Kagome shrugged. "I have to go somewhere."

"Can I come?" His eyes flicked up, _hopeful._

Kagome wilted.

"No…" Gaara answered for her and his eyes darted back to his knees and twisting fingers. "I don't like it when you go…I feel funny when you're not around, Kagome."

Kagome scooted over to her twin and nuzzled his neck. "I know…"

"What does it feel like?"

"What does _what_ feel like?"

Gaara straightened up and Kagome's chin fell from his shoulder. "Pain."

"Oh," Kagome straightened as well, Gaara never really reveled in affection long with her and outright scorned others' touch. "Kind of like…" she paused, at a loss for words to describe. "You know when we're separated?"

Gaara nodded.

"And you get that hollow feeling in your chest and it feels like your heart is gonna explode?"

Gaara nodded once more.

"Kind of like that but on your skin… and _sharper_."

"Oh," Gaara suddenly placed a hand over his mouth. "I feel that every time you get hurt…"

"You do?"

"Mhm." Gaara tapped his lips. "Today in the market – right here."

"Huh, that is weird."

"Why is it weird?"

"I dunno…" But it could not be normal.

…

Guilt pounded through her like an old, worn drum. She was used to the sensation by now but it never waned. She hated leaving Gaara but it _was _a necessity.

Kagome darted through the tunnels of Orochimaru's sanctum like an eager mouse through a maze. The twists and curves were meant to confuse and eliminate intruders or the chance onlooker whose curiosity got the better of them.

The wrong door opened could invoke a batch of cobras to rain down or the wrong turn could activate a lethal toxin to be released into the air.

Just so, it was the perfect place for a five year old to toddle.

"Orochimaru-sama?" she called down the final bend and the dank, dark halls gave way to piercing synthetic light.

A pause and the Sannin did not respond until she entered through his laboratory's doors, squinting and flushed.

"Hm, my little mouse returns?" A whine of a wheeled chair and Orochimaru spun around to greet his little protégée. He was cloaked in a pristine white lab coat with a few metal scalpels tucked into the lapel and a fine spray of blood on the right sleeve.

Unnerved, Kagome entered the laboratory brimming with pickled fetuses and countless pointy objects as casually as a candy shop.

"I'm sorry," she sputtered and saddled herself on the metal lip of his examining table. She stared blankly at the flayed cat carcass.

"And for what do I owe this apology for?" His glassy eyes gleamed like a tiger's eye. "The discarded gift? The intrusion of Uchiha Itachi into my studies? Your delayed correspondence? Or perhaps for the little scene you caused in the market this afternoon?"

Kagome wrinkled her nose. "Itachi was here?"

"Oh, yes." An opaque mason jar clattered over the countertop. "To return this."

Kagome blinked, flipped the lid and plucked out the delicate monkey cranium. "Whoops," she whistled and dropped it back into the jar with clink. "I must of forgot it on the dock."

The crack of preserved bone made the Sannin's lips twitch irritably. This girl consistently tested his patience. "Besides the point…" he brushed off his annoyance and his tone melted to a smooth velvet. "What I wish to know Kagome-chan is why you have been skipping our… _'sessions'_?"

Kagome shrugged. "Been busy."

"Well, you know this latest outburst of Gaara-kun's could have been avoided had you not been bamboozling—"

Kagome snickered.

"What? What is it? Why are you laughing?" Orochimaru hissed.

"That's a funny word."

Orochimaru growled under his breath and his fished out a syringe from a nearby drawer. "Prostrate your arm," he demanded suddenly.

Kagome did so unflinchingly and watched as the needle dipped into the soft white flesh of her antecubital. Orochimaru's long tapered fingers retracted and the vial filled slowly with bright red blood. In a swift movement, the needle was done away with and the vial was added into a refrigerator by his knees. Kagome's eyes wandered over to the illuminated and countless bright red vials.

The door snapped shut and Orochimaru handed her a small tuft of gauze. "Was that so hard? Now, we can finally begin the next segment of the experiment."

Kagome shook her head and placed the gauze gingerly over the pinprick of a wound. "Itachi is investigating into the disappearances," she said suddenly.

"I would assume so," Orochimaru murmured unconcerned as he scrawled down a few notes on his clipboard. "He is a sharp one, sharper than the rest of his ridiculous clan."

Kagome fidgeted nervously. "You said that if we didn't bother with his clan mates this time, he wouldn't get involved."

"Ah, but he did," Orochimaru quipped and shot the little girl a wicked side-glance. "And now we must tread ever more carefully – do you understand, Kagome-chan?"

Kagome's dark eyes flitted with uncertainty before nodding suddenly. "I will be living with his clan soon, Orochimaru-sama. "

The Sannin nodded and his dull black hair slipped past his shoulders. "Yes. The closer you are, the more we can observe his progress into the investigation and keep one step ahead."

Kagome nodded sullenly and her form wilted, becoming a crestfallen red cherub.

"It is for the better," Orochimaru cooed and he hooked a cold finger under her chin. "I assure you."

"But all the people we've kidnapped already have died, Orochimaru-sama," she argued piteously with guilt throttling her voice's conviction.

"Yes, but would you have your brother's life in their stead?" he quipped with a dark, malevolent chuckle knowing he had cornered that sharp little mind of hers and silenced her morals with her own emotions.

And the answer always was the same. "No."

"Good," Orochimaru tittered and whirled to his current experiment. "Now, be quiet or see yourself out."

Kagome now sobered from her previous dark thoughts, kicked the air and queried cheerily, "Orochimaru-sama, can I have a lollipop?"

"No."

"But you _always_ give me one after my shots."

A deep, hissing sigh sang from his chest and the Sannin fished out a jar of candies for the little child. _"Fine."_

Kagome's hands were already elbow-deep in the sticky jar. "Ew."

Orochimaru paused once more during his writings. "What is it now, you infernal child?"

"I _hate_ grape."

…

Morning brought change to Namikaze Minato's household. Kushina prepared the twins' lunches for the first and last time for the Academy's orientation. Naruto was still moping in the hallway as Minato taped the last of Kagome's toys in boxes. Gaara had yet to get out of bed, which was strange for a perpetual insomniac. And Kagome was glaring at him from her emptied toy box like a harried magpie whose worm had been stolen.

Kushina ambled into the twins' bedroom with two paper sacks and donning a navy blue shift that Naruto clutched at reflexively. "Kagome will you at least brush your hair?" she asked exasperatedly at the girl's rumpled romper from yesterday and her fluffed, tangled black hair.

Kagome's features darkened and she brought her knees to her chest. Gaara flitted over to her side and patted her unruly hair silently.

Kushina left the lunches on the cleared dresser as Minato lingered in the doorway. "All is ready?" she queried her husband.

Minato nodded. "All is ready," he affirmed and hefted the last bin into the hallway. "Fugaku's men should be here by noon to pick it up," he called from the hallway and reappeared cloaked in white and saffron hair frenzied.

Kushina nodded. "You hear that, you two? And don't forget Mikoto is picking you two after school today."

Kagome _moped._

It was one thing to ship her off to the Uchiha clan but it was another to have her living in the same household as her dreaded rival: Uchiha Sasuke.

…

It was a quiet hate, one that had long since lost its heat that boiled his veins. Anger was fleeting and terribly exhausting to maintain. Now it simply simmered beneath the skin and left a terrible ache throughout him, but even that too was dying out. He was no avenger or murderer but it was the only thing keeping him going nowadays.

"And now what am I? Rin? Obito?"

Hatake Kakashi fisted his hands into his pockets and watched as the ochre maple leaves danced over the marked granite.

The Memorial Stone held thousands upon thousands of names. Yet he was one of only a handful of visitors that ever frequented this desolate spot regularly.

Shadows tossed with the slow sway of quince trees and oaks and the wind resembled rushing water as it soughed through the scintillating canopy. The magpies always let out a trilling melody that always seemed tastefully muffled and there was always a pleasant musk about the area. Maybe it was the remnants of ash from the countless funeral pyres or maybe it was the smell of wet granite, but it Kakashi knew this scent well and always became somber at its presence.

This was a quiet place, possibly the only one where peace had a foothold and one could reflect with some hope of privacy.

_Enough have died for it_, Kakashi mused bitterly.

Of course such hopes were dashed because on this particular morning, Sabaku no Kagome trounced over the trampled grass and sidled alongside him.

She was a ruffled red blur on his peripheral and Kakashi ignored her for the moment. But the minutes passed and eventually he let his line of sight follows hers.

_Sabaku no Yashamaru_

A flood of memories swelled over his mindset at that name. The stuttering, gangly teenage Chuunin with two babies clasped to his chest as he bombarded his sensei for aid. At first glance the boy had been nothing more than a coward, an inevitable casualty. . .

But at his requiem by Minato, he was proclaimed for his daring escape from his homeland, his defiance against the Kazekage and the conquering of his own hatred towards the Ichibi no Jinchuuriki that had been responsible for his sister's death—

"He was the bravest man I ever knew," Kakashi confessed with a sudden surge of conviction he had not known for years.

Kagome looked up to him and he felt those dark eyes on him. "Really?"

"Yes," he said and his voice was hollow and rasping once more.

Another blanket of silence peppered by the trill of birds settled between them.

Kagome broke it. "You hate me, don't you?"

Kakashi flinched at that young lilt. "It's… something you should not think about."

"Is it because of her?" she queried innocently with a grubby little finger pointing to the single name inscribed on the dewed granite face.

_Inuzuka Rin_

Kakashi could only nod numbly. If it hadn't been for the twins' arrival in his village and Minato's heroics to keep them here, then Suna would have never declared war and Rin would have never been deployed to the front lines.

And then, Rin never would have had skull crushed or her brains splattered over the hot, foreign sand.

"It's okay," Kagome said suddenly and those dark eyes of hers were on him. "Just don't hate my brother."

Sobered, Kakashi looked down at her for the first time. Flushed in the cheeks and haloed by summer grass, she was just a little thing. And yet, this little thing had cost him his dearest person. "Why…?" he rasped. "What does it matter?"

"Because," Kagome began as she fiddled with her fingers. "Because he has enough people hating him already."

Something stirred deep in that void of Kakashi's chest and he couldn't quite shake it. He ran a weary hand over his scarred eyelid and his masked lips. "Just go home, kid."

She scurried off with dark eyes welling with hurt and screaming, _I don't have a home. _

"I'm sorry," Kagome croaked at the edge of the glade.

And Kakashi had a feeling she wasn't talking to him.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I had plans for this story. But they will not come to fruition it seems. My profile is updated accordingly to my departure from Fanfiction. ~KK


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